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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid industry concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the previous year, but decreased to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some supplies labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other environmental damage.

The concern entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

“EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers since July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered,” he stated. “These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations.”

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

“The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is important that the exact same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks,” 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to exclude 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)