By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers amidst market issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the previous year, however declined to recognize the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some supplies labeled as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The concern entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

The EPA audits started after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies ought to be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created vigorous requirements to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)