By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market concerns that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has launched audits over the previous year, but decreased to recognize the business targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

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

The problem came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits began after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies must be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the same scrutiny 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 urged the administration to exclude 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)