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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel producers amid industry concerns that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for to secure financially rewarding government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some supplies labeled as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The problem came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

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

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic standards to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is important that the very same examination is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed 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 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)