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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel producers amid market issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the business targeted because the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, including tradable under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some materials identified as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which includes, amongst other things, an examination of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced vigorous requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is crucial that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," 6 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 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)