Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit Program under scrutiny for potential mismanagement

In Oregon, the Secretary of State ordered an audit of the companies benefiting from subsidies under the now-defunct Business Energy Tax Credit Program that has found 165 potentially dubious projects that took home $347 million in tax credits. Among the list of questionable projects was Pacific Ethanol’s Boardman facility that benefited from $18.2 million in tax credits due to the auditor’s assessment that the rules weren’t followed to the letter and that the maximum allowed costs were succeeded. The company says it just followed the program managers’ instructions.