By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has released audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the companies targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

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

The EPA audits began after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the places that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal companies need to be as rigorous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the exact same examination is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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