Did This Billionaire Game Ethanol Markets for a $50 Million Windfall?

It hasn't exactly been a secret that billionaire investor Carl Icahn holds contempt for renewable fuels. His companies, CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI) and CVR Refining (NYSE: CVRR), have often blamed government rules for eating into profits. Fuel blenders are required to submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency special compliance credits, called renewable identification numbers, or RINs, to show that mandated volumes of renewable fuels are being blended into the nation's gasoline supply. If a blender's gasoline volume does not contain the required percentage of biofuels, it can buy RINs from blenders that have excess credits.

But a weird thing began happening in late 2016.

CVR Energy and CVR Refining began putting off purchases of RINs in the months leading up to and following the general election in November. In fact, the company began selling millions of them. In effect, the company was betting that the prices of the compliance credits, which are traded freely on the open market, would drop in the future. Icahn was essentially shorting RINs.

Source: Fool.com