{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-ernst-press-epa-on-used-cooking-oil-imports", "Grassley, Ernst Press EPA on Used Cooking Oil Imports", "2024-12-13", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "IA", "Chuck Grassley", "G000386", "www.grassley.senate.gov", "grassley", "https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Finance and Agriculture Committees, joined Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and bipartisan colleagues in demanding answers from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its process for verifying the authenticity of used cooking oil (UCO) imports.\n\nGrassley and colleagues in June first probed EPA, along with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), about the validity of UCO imports in light of a massive year-over-year imports increase. In response to Congress, Senior CBP official Troy Miller admitted CBP considers UCO as \u201cpure\u201d even when commingled with virgin vegetable oil, such as palm oil. Based on this admission, the senators are slamming EPA\u2019s existing verification process as \u201cmeaningless.\u201d\n\n\u201cWithout a robust verification process, the credibility of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is at risk, and American farmers are likely missing out on key market opportunities. For example, through August, the U.S. has imported a historic 3.2 billion pounds of UCO in 2024 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is enough product to displace approximately 270 million bushels of soybeans,\u201d the senators wrote.\n\n\u201cAmerican farmers should not continue paying the price of an inadequate and incomplete foreign feedstock verification system,\u201d they concluded.\n\nThe letter was cosigned by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).\n\nRead the senators\u2019 letter HERE.\n\nBackground:\n\nAs a longtime advocate of homegrown energy, Grassley is spearheading several additional initiatives to support U.S. biofuel feedstock producers, including:", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:13:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-ernst-press-epa-on-used-cooking-oil-imports"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5232230070978403, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}