(Reuters) – A group of U.S. senators from farm states is calling for regulatory action on rising imports of used cooking oil from China and elsewhere, fearing some of the shipments could be fraudulent.
U.S. biofuel producers in recent years have purchased increasing amounts of used cooking oil to make products like biodiesel that can earn lucrative federal and state climate subsidies.
But some of the shipments could contain virgin palm oil, a product linked to climate and environmental damage from deforestation, the senators wrote in a letter to several U.S. regulators and agencies released Thursday.
According to the letter, the U.S. has gone from importing less than 200 million pounds of used cooking oil per year to importing more than 3 billion pounds by 2023, more than half of which will come from China.
“We understand that there are good players using UCO as part of a wide range of feedstocks in the production of renewable fuels, and that domestic sources of UCO are subject to strict verification and traceability requirements,” the senators wrote in the letter dated 20 June.
“However, we are concerned about the lack of transparency surrounding the United States’ efforts to verify imported UCO,” they said.
The letter was addressed to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Trade Representative, requesting details of U.S. enforcement and verification actions regarding used cooking oil imports.
It was signed by six U.S. senators from the farm state, including Republicans Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, Roger Marshall, Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, along with Democrat Sherrod Brown.
Biofuel producers can collect a number of federal and state subsidies for making low-carbon fuels, including by earning tradable credits called RINs under the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard overseen by the EPA.
Imports of used cooking oil into Europe have fallen sharply following increased scrutiny of imports to prevent mislabelling, the letter said.
