By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of market issues that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government aids.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has over the previous year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.
The concern entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.
The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms should be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually created energetic standards to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the very same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.
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' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply
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