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 introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amidst industry concerns that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

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

U.S. from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies must be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the very 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 agencies.

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)