By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry concerns that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.
EPA spokesperson Landis told Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the past year, but declined to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.
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 fears have been mounting that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other environmental damage.
The concern entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.
The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal companies ought to 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 manufacturers, and it is crucial 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 firms.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to omit 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' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply
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