Exclusive: Carl Icahn responds to ‘witch hunt’ complaint

Public Citizen’s assertion that I should be required to register as a lobbyist is another gross misstatement of the facts which is similar to much of the “fake news” that is unfortunately so prevalent today.

I have vetted my activities with a number of lawyers and it is clear that no registration is required.

A more worthwhile investigation would seek to uncover the dark forces behind this witch hunt, which is perhaps being financed either by those seeking to smear President Donald Trump, and anyone associated with him, or those seeking to obfuscate the real issue at hand—the continuing economic devastation being wrought by the Environmental Protection Agency’s corrupt Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) trading program. 

While we are not fighting the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), I have for months and will continue to speak out against the misguided way in which the EPA has been administering the RFS as it pertains to the RINs trading program. It allows large integrated oil companies and large gasoline retail convenience store chains (some foreign owned) to benefit from a massive windfall, making obscene profits by sucking the blood out of our nation’s independent merchant refiners and small “mom-and-pop” gas stations (many minority owned).

Many of these minority owners have put their life savings into these gas stations and are rapidly losing them as a result of large retail chains using ill-gotten profits from RINs to engage in price wars with them and force them out of business.

The National Black Caucus of State Legislators has stated:

The RFS has turned into a giant source of windfall profits for large entities, allowing them the means to start pushing out smaller, independent, gasoline retailers from the market. The large companies do this by utilizing their newfound wealth to buy up others’ stations or to invest in making their stations more appealing than their independent competitors. A whopping 42.4 percent of gasoline stations are minority-owned. As the RFS continues to facilitate an uneven playing field, small stations that contribute to the community are increasingly likely to be forced out of business; they simply cannot compete when the decks are being profoundly stacked against them.

We believe these activities are illegal. I have over the years fought the establishment by engaging with corporations overseen by lackluster boards and management, and those shareholders that followed alongside me have made close to a trillion dollars because my activities meaningfully enhanced the value of those corporations. My campaigns against the establishment have also done much to increase the productivity of this country.

I view my current fight against this insane law as similar to those campaigns. I have been maligned many times in the press over the years fighting the establishment but I have never shied away from following my convictions. I don’t intend to start now.

Carl C. Icahn is Chairman of the Board of Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP), a diversified holding company engaged in ten primary business segments: Investment, Automotive, Energy, Gaming, Railcar, Mining, Food Packaging, Metals, Real Estate and Home Fashion.

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