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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers amid market issues that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to determine the companies 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 variety of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials identified as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," six 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 exclude 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)