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

Wilburn Mault edited this page 2025-01-18 16:39:14 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst market concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has introduced audits over the previous year, however declined to recognize the companies targeted since the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable 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 analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the .

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the exact same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 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)