By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers amidst market issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding government subsidies.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The problem came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

“EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers since July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an examination of the places that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered,” he said. “These investigations, however, are continuous and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations.”

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

“The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the very same examination 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 prompted the administration to leave out 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)