By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the past year, however decreased to determine the because the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, 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, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually performed audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected,” he stated. “These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations.“

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

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the 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 agencies.

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