Ethanol Scam

Of course mandated programs are open to scams -

Ethanol is losing political steam on the left and right, but the fuel retains a powerful patron in the Environmental Protection Agency. On Wednesday the EPA retroactively reduced the 2013 gasoline-blending mandate for cellulosic ethanol to 810,185 gallons from six million. If that sounds like a big cut, 810,185 gallons is precisely every last drop the industry managed to produce. The 2014 mandate is nonetheless pegged at a preposterous 17 million gallons.

 Every gallon of ethanol is assigned a 38-digit "renewable identification number," or RIN, which oil refiners, blenders and importers can buy or trade to comply with the quotas. Because the EPA registers RIN generators but conducts no due diligence about their legitimacy, crooks have discovered that they can sell fake RINs that are unconnected to an underlying batch of ethanol.

What do you expect when the executive regulators are of this caliber -

Beale, 65, admitted in September that he had skipped out on work for years by telling a series of supervisors, including top officials in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, that he was doing top-secret work for the CIA. He was paid for a total of 2 ½ years of work he did not perform since early 2000 and received about $500,000 in bonuses he did not deserve, according to his plea agreement.

At sentencing he told the court it was the fault of lax management, so the court threw the book at him.  Book him, Danno.  32 months.  Not years, 32 months.  Which is less time in jail than he spent playing hooky.

We need a free market in insurance (as once conceived, not as now regulated) to protect the environment.

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