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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the past year, however decreased to identify the companies targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn 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 installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms must be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial 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 companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to omit 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 and Matthew Lewis)