By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers amid market concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has launched audits over the past year, however decreased to identify the business targeted because the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The concern entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits began after the agency 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 carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms must be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous requirements to validate, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the same examination is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

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