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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. Epa has launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually released audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew 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 mounting that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The concern entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

"EPA has actually performed audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies need to be as rigorous in validating imports as they are supply chains.

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the same examination is used 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)