1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government aids.

EPA representative Landis told Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the past year, however decreased to identify the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew 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 labeled as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

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

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel producers considering that July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

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

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to leave out 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)