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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel market concerns that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has released audits over the previous year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms need to be as rigorous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is crucial 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 companies.

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)