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 introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two sustainable fuel producers in the middle of market concerns that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the previous year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some supplies labeled as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits started after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually conducted audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six 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 prompted 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)