By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has released examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel producers amid market issues that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually released audits over the past year, however decreased to determine the companies targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

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

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted 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)