By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government subsidies.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the past year, however declined to identify the companies targeted because the investigations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized 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 products identified as used cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.
The concern entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.
The EPA audits started after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies should be as rigorous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous standards to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is important 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 on July 30 advised the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy 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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