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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two sustainable fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of 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 utilized cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

“EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected,” he stated. “These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement examinations.”

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

“The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is vital that the same scrutiny 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 prompted the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)