By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of market issues that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has launched audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew 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 been installing that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

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

The EPA audits began after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers since July 2023 which includes, among other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

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

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)