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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Agency has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has released audits over the previous year, but decreased to identify the companies targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some products identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the very same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 prompted 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)