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. Epa has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers amid market concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, however declined to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active 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 fears have actually been mounting that some materials identified as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The concern came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the exact same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)