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 released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel producers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government .

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the previous year, however declined to recognize the business targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make 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 worries have been mounting that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered 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 manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers since July 2023 which includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies should be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the very same examination is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

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