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 actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two sustainable fuel producers amidst industry issues that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the business targeted because the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some supplies labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

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

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

"EPA has carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which includes, among other things, an examination of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms ought to be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic .

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous standards to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the exact same examination is used to imported feedstocks," six 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 urged the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)