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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Epa has actually into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers amidst market concerns that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has launched audits over the previous year, however decreased to identify the companies targeted because the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude 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 supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

“EPA has actually conducted audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 which includes, among other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered,” he said. “These investigations, nevertheless, 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 companies ought to be as extensive in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

“The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is vital that the same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks,” 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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