US EPA Says It Is Auditing Biofuel Producers Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply
By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government subsidies.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually released audits over the past year, but declined to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized 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 worries have been installing that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.
The came into 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 recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.
The EPA audits began after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, 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, stating federal agencies ought to be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is crucial that the exact same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to exclude 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)