By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has released audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers because July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is vital that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

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