Biofuels scam cost US millions

Oilprice.com:
A cargo train filled with biofuels crossed the border between the US and Canada 24 times between the 15th of June and the 28th of June 2010; not once did it unload its cargo, yet it still earned millions of dollars. CBC News of Canada was the first to pick up on this story on the 3rd of December 2012, and began their own investigation into the possible explanations behind this odd behaviour.
CN Rail, the operator of the train, stated their innocence in the matter as they had only “received shipping directions from the customer, which, under law, it has an obligation to meet. CN discharged its obligations with respect to those movements in strict compliance with its obligations as a common carrier, and was compensated accordingly.” Even so, they still managed to earn C$2.6 million in shipping fees.
During their investigation CBC managed to obtain an internal email which stated that the cars of the train were all reconfigured between each trip but that the cargo was never actually unloaded, because “each move per car across the border is revenue generated”, the sale of the cargo itself was inconsequential.
The cargo of the train was owned by Bioversal Trading Inc., or its US partner Verdero, depending on what stage of the trip it was at. The companies “made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.” Each time the loaded train crossed the border the cargo earned its owner a certain amount of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which were awarded by the US EPA to “promote and track production and importation of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.”...
... 
Under state law this could be described as theft by false pretext.  The biofuels effort has been ripe with fraud.  In some cases the RINs are completely fictitious.  Because of a law that make no sense the oil companies are required to by these RINs even though there is no biofuels to mix with the refined products the companies are making.  The API has brought a case in the DC courts to force the EPA to stop requiring these bogus RINs.  The EPA also makes money off of the oil companies when there are no biofuels to be mixed.  It is just another example of the shameful corruption in the Obama EPA. 

Hit tip to Doug Ross.

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