By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government subsidies.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the past year, but declined to determine the business targeted since the examinations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some supplies labeled as used cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.
The issue entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams issues.
The EPA audits started after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms should be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," six 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 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)
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US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' used Cooking Oil Supply
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