oleovest-pl

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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of industry concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually launched audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the business targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The concern entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the .

The EPA audits started after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an examination of the places that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms need to be as strenuous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the exact same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

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