U.S. farmers remain hopeful that the push for renewable diesel will open a large market for the vegetable oil pressed from soybeans.
However, used cooking oil, particularly from China, is also used as a feedstock in biofuels and has been depressing the need for soybean oil. North Dakota State University agricultural economist Frayne Olson says this is because of two different policies currently in place.
There are two policy layers currently at odds between the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, and the federal RFS or Renewable Fuel Standard. CARB is the organization that is greenlighting used cooking oil as a feedstock says Olson.
The imported used cooking oil is considered a waste product. Its carbon footprint has already been assigned to the food industry. This means that oil companies value the feedstock because it checks more boxes for California carbon policy than processed soybean oil.
