By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has released audits over the previous year, however decreased to recognize the companies targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The concern entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel producers considering that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an evaluation of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies must be as rigorous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

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