By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has released examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has released audits over the previous year, but declined to recognize the business targeted because the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the .

The EPA audits started 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 stated.

“EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected,” he stated. “These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations.”

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

“The Biden administration has actually developed energetic standards to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is essential that the same examination is used to imported feedstocks,” six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised 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)