US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers’ Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Epa has launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some might be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has introduced audits over the past year, however declined to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials identified as used cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

“EPA has conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers since July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected,” he stated. “These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations.”

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

“The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the very 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 companies.

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