By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel producers in the middle of market issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government subsidies.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has released audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted since the investigations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other environmental damage.
The concern entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.
The EPA audits started after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has actually conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized 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 continuous enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies should be as rigorous in as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has produced vigorous requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is important that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six 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 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)
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US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre owned Cooking Oil Supply
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