By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst market concerns that some might be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to federal government subsidies.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has launched audits over the past year, but declined to identify the companies targeted because the investigations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, 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 utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.
The issue entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.
The EPA audits started after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an examination of the places that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms need to be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has developed vigorous standards to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the very same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 Treasury Department on July 30 urged 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' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply
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