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 released investigations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel producers in the middle of industry concerns that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has launched audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the companies targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

The production of from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the places that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal companies ought to be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged 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)