By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel producers amid market issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has released audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the business targeted due to the fact that 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 environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

“EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered,” he said. “These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations.”

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

“The Biden administration has created vigorous requirements to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the exact same analysis is applied 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 omit 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)