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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products labeled as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern entered into focus following a surge in used exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms need to be as strenuous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has produced vigorous requirements to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the 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 urged 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)