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 released examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the past year, however decreased to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.
The problem entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.
The EPA audits started after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement examinations."
U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms must be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 advised the administration to exclude 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)