By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of market issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological 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 materials identified as utilized cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has actually performed audits of renewable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created vigorous standards to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the same examination is used to imported feedstocks," 6 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 exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)