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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of market concerns that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the because the examinations are continuous.

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

The issue came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has performed audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six 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 advised the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)