US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers’ used Cooking Oil Supply

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers amid market concerns that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the business targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The problem entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements 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 since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected,” he said. “These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement examinations.”

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

“The Biden administration has actually developed energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the very same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks,” 6 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 urged the administration to exclude 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)