1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' used Cooking Oil Supply

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst market concerns that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has launched audits over the previous year, but declined to recognize the business targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some supplies labeled as utilized cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced energetic requirements to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is important that the exact same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to omit 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)