US EPA Says It Is Auditing Biofuel Producers Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

By Leah Douglas


Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of market concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government aids.


EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has released audits over the previous year, however decreased to recognize the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.


The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make 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 mounting that some supplies labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.


The concern entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.


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


"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."


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


"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is important that the very same examination is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.


Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to leave out 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)