[rayiner]

I find it deeply amusing that tech people are always so forgiving of bugs in software, but seem to go out of their way to blame the government for bugs in regulation just because it's the government. Newsflash: everything is imperfect, and the operation of this whole complex world we live in requires a certain amount of good faith on the part of everyone.

I agree the regulation is asinine, but for reasons completely unrelated to the incident. From the article: "Each time the loaded train crossed the border the cargo earned its owner a certain amount of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which were awarded by the US EPA to “promote and track production and importation of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.” The RINs were supposed to be retired each time the shipment passed the border, but due to a glitch not all of them were."

The mechanism in question was reasonable, and it looks like there was a bug in the implementation. While that's definitely a mistake, I don't think it rises to the level of "asinine" and I don't think that gets the importer off the hook any more than it gets a cracker off the hook when he exploits an OS bug to steal credit card numbers.

[rhizome]

Implementation bugs are design flaws are tax loopholes are human failings that the technocrat decries as solvable even though it's people originating all of it.

[rayiner]

Lots of human failings are solvable through regulation. Have you been killed and eaten recently? Boom a common flaw of human society solved by government.