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 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of market concerns that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, however declined to determine the companies targeted since the investigations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and environment aids, consisting of 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 utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.
The problem entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.
The EPA audits began after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms should be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is vital that the exact same examination is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra 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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