By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding federal government subsidies.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has released audits over the previous year, but decreased to identify the business targeted since the investigations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some materials identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other .
The issue entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.
The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies must be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has developed vigorous standards to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the very same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to omit 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)
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US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre owned Cooking Oil Supply
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