Used Cooking Oil From China Floods U.S. Market

China is accused of illegally exporting 1.5 billion pounds of used cooking oil to the United States to take advantage of tax incentives for renewable biofuels. Fraudulent use of the Renewable Identification Number or RIN credits is also alleged. A half-dozen Republican senators sent a letter to USDA, Treasury Department and other cabinet-level officials to investigate this claim. During a news briefing Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was asked about this issue. “We are very sensitive to this issue,” Vilsack said in response to a question at a news briefing Wednesday. “We obviously want to make sure that we understand and appreciate the source of that cooking oil and what its environmental impact, positive or negative, might be.”