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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has released audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)