US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers’ Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Epa has released examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some might be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

“EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered,” he stated. “These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement examinations.”

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies ought to be as rigorous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

“The Biden administration has created vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks,” six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged 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)