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

terrencemack45 edited this page 2025-01-11 22:32:20 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise examining over the scams issues.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of renewable fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the places that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies should be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the very same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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)