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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 introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has released audits over the previous year, however decreased to recognize the business targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, 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 used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The problem entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking from Asia in current years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits began after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous standards to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the same analysis 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 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)