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

Noelia Prendergast edited this page 2025-01-12 08:57:10 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some products labeled as oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The problem came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits began after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies need to be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary 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 prompted 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)