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 examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market concerns that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has released audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the companies targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some products identified as used cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

The EPA audits began after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually performed audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms should be as rigorous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous requirements to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the very same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

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