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 launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel producers amid market concerns that some might be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the past year, however declined to recognize the companies targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The problem came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits began after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of feedstocks, stating federal companies should be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the very 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 firms.

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