ELC not using spectre

ELC seems to always read in files as spice format even though I have "simulator lang = spectre" without the quotes at the top of every .scs file.  In addition I have:

set_var EC_SIM_NAME "spectre"
set_var EC_SIM_TYPE "spectre"

in my script every time before I do any database operation.

These are the types of warnings and errors I am getting (list is really 50x longer mostly referenceing ASSERT.  this is just the end of it):

 [WARNING(db_prepare)] spice syntax warning: ASSERT : no definition of the subckt
 => XVBD_CHECK ASSERT
[WARNING(db_prepare)] spice syntax warning: ASSERT : no definition of the subckt
 => XVBS_CHKFWD ASSERT
[WARNING(db_prepare)] spice syntax warning: ASSERT : no definition of the subckt
 => XVBD_CHKFWD ASSERT
[WARNING(db_prepare)] spice syntax warning: PINMOD : no definition of the subckt
 => XD A C SX PINMOD
[ERROR(db_prepare)] spice syntax error: DIODENWX : illegal port definition of macro
 => XAVD364_1 SUB VDD GND DIODENWX

Notice that is says spice every time instead of spectre.  Maybe this is just a program issue where it always says that spice is used even if it's not, but I have no idea.

So is spice really be used?  And if so then how do I make it use spectre?