By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amidst industry concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has introduced audits over the previous year, but decreased to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some materials identified as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other environmental damage.
The issue entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also investigating over the fraud issues.
The EPA audits began after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."
U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies need to be as rigorous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean 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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