1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply

Travis Gawler edited this page 2025-01-12 09:47:32 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually released examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to identify the companies targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are actually less expensive and less palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits started after the company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal companies should be as rigorous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic requirements to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the exact same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)