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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 introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

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

The concern came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

“EPA has actually conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers since July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected,” he said. “These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement investigations.”

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal companies need to be as rigorous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

“The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is crucial that the very same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks,” six 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 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 Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)