mission-biofuels-sdn.-bhd

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually launched audits over the past year, however decreased to recognize the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude 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 been installing that some products labeled as used cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The concern came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits started after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers looking for to under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies must be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the very same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall 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 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)