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 manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government subsidies.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has launched audits over the past year, however declined to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some products identified as used cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.
The concern entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams issues.
The EPA audits began after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies must be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the same scrutiny is applied 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 leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. ( by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)
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US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply
Mariano Dossett edited this page 2025-01-11 12:40:14 -06:00