By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers amid market concerns that some might be utilizing fraudulent 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, but declined to recognize the companies targeted because the are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products labeled as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the very same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 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)