By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel producers amid industry issues that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government subsidies.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the previous year, however declined to identify the companies targeted since the investigations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Standard. But worries have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other environmental damage.
The problem entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that analysts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.
The EPA audits started after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies must be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has developed energetic standards to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is crucial that the same examination 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 advised the administration to exclude 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' Pre owned Cooking Oil Supply
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