By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel producers amidst market concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the previous year, but decreased to identify the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials labeled 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 came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

“EPA has performed audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected,” he said. “These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about ongoing enforcement examinations.”

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

“The Biden administration has actually developed energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the very same scrutiny is applied 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 advised the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)