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 renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn 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 worries have actually been installing that some materials identified as used cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually performed audits of renewable fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous standards to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the exact same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to .

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised 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)