By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the previous year, but declined to recognize the business targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some products identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 which includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the very same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to omit 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)