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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amidst market concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the business targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers looking for to make under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the very same analysis is used 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 tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)