By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has released audits over the past year, however declined to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

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 actually been mounting that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The issue entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous standards to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the exact 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)