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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel producers in the middle of industry concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government aids.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies should be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is important that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

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