US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply
By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable federal government subsidies.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has released audits over the past year, but declined to determine the companies targeted because the investigations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.
The concern entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.
The EPA audits started 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 performed audits of renewable fuel producers considering that July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms ought to be as strenuous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous requirements to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, in a June 20 letter to federal companies.
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)