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

Evangeline Marrufo edited this page 2025-01-12 09:24:35 +09:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, however decreased to recognize the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic standards to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to leave out 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)