The American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is under duress by President Donald Trump’s administration. He nominee to head the agency, Scott Pruitt, has sent waves of fear because he has publicly said the EPA should be abolished.
Pruitt is also concerned about an increasingly bitter and rancorous practice in how the EPA reports the biofuel component added to gasoline. “Given the acrimony over regulations almost certain to happen as the top management of the EPA changes, the issues surrounding the energy intelligence company, Genscape, may be the tip of the iceberg,” says an official in the know. “Late last year, the EPA initiated procedures to revoke the company’s authority to verify biofuel credit compliance under Federal regulations.”
At issue was a massive fraud perpetrated by companies that Genscape was supposed to monitor. The EPA charged the company with “failing to detect the fraud as part of its quality assurance program.” U.S. regulators discovered that Genscape verified millions of renewable fuel compliance credits that were fraudulently generated in 2013-14 by Gen-X Energy Group Inc. and Southern Resources and Commodities LLC.
Genscape won’t go away quietly. It issued a stern statement saying it would “fight the EPA’s effort to revoke the company’s authority biofuels compliance credits under the U.S. renewable fuels program.”
Pruitt is critical of the EPA’s requirement to add biofuels to gasoline. “Given the largest volume of renewables in the mix comes from ethanol, its producers, along with the corn growers and other sources of ethanol, have a vested interest in continuing the program,” reports a spokesperson for the ethanol industry.
Genscape was given 60 days to appeal the EPA decision.
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