By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the previous year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have stated includes 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 renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies should 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 manufacturers, and it is essential that the very 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 companies.

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