• EORRA required the federal government to establish separate classes for edible fats and oils from mammals, fish, and vegetables and led to the EPA declaring that non-petroleum oils pose similar environmental hazards to petroleum-based oils.

In 1995, Congress enacted the Edible Oil Regulatory Reform Act (EORRA). The statute mandates that most federal agencies must differentiate among, and establish separate classes for, various types of oils, specifically, animal fats and oils and greases, fish and marine mammal oils, oils of vegetable origin, and other oils and greases (including petroleum).

In differentiating among these classes of oils, EORRA directed the agencies to consider differences in these oils’ physical, chemical, biological, and other properties, and in their environmental effects.

As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clarified that animal fats and vegetable oils do not markedly differ from petroleum oils in properties or environmental effects, and the agency published a rulemaking establishing regulatory language to address non-petroleum oils more specifically.