By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

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

The issue came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits began after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually performed audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the places that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually 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 simply trust, American producers, and it is vital that the same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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