By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released examinations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel manufacturers amid market concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the companies targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of 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 more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to validate, not simply trust, American producers, 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 exclude 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)