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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Epa has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amidst market issues that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the previous year, however decreased to identify the companies targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits began after the company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

“EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered,” he said. “These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement examinations.”

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

“The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is crucial that the very same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks,” six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

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)