WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Tulsa midstream energy provider has agreed to pay a $25 million civil penalty and retire 36 million renewable fuel production credits to settle charges by the federal government that the company violated the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
NGL Crude Logistics reached the settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its alleged generation of extra renewable fuel credits stemming from a series of transactions which took pace in 2011 with Western Dubuque Biodiesel, LLC.
According to the Justice Department, NGL obtained fuel credits for approximately 24 million gallons of biodiesel. However, the company generated 36 million additional credits or Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) that can then be traded or sold to refineries and importers and used for compliance with the renewable fuel production requirements, the DOJ said.
According to the Justice Department, NGL purchased millions of gallons of biodiesel on the open market with approximately 36 million RINs being assigned to the biodiesel. NGL then sold the biodiesel to Western Dubuque but designated it as a "feedstock," according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspection.
“Enforcement actions such as [these] are essential to ensuring the integrity of government programs,” deputy associate attorney general Jesse Panuccio in a statement. “Fraud in the RFS market will not be tolerated. I applaud the work of the EPA and DOJ enforcement team who achieved [this] excellent result for the taxpayers.”