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Today, Rob Benedict, AFPM Vice President of Petrochemicals and Midstream, issued the following statement in response to a unanimous proposal from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board that would allow for reciprocal switching within the U.S. freight rail system in order to address inadequate service.

AFPM welcomes the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) efforts in developing a Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, but consistent with comments submitted to the Agency, we urge a revision of their strategy. To prevent plastic pollution, we encourage EPA to embrace policies that enable, not hinder, a circular economy for plastics where we use a range of technologies and strategies to recover post-consumer plastic and transform it back into usable materials.

AFPM sat down with Dr. Ron Abbott, Ph.D., the Sustainability Technology Manager at Chevron Phillips Chemical. A 31-year veteran of the company and holder of 26 patents, Dr. Abbott is responsible for technical programs that advance long-term global sustainability objectives, like advanced recycling. Dr. Abbott was recently featured in AFPM’s recent “Recycling Reimagined” video.

People and outlets across the ideological spectrum—even those favoring EPA’s proposal—see the end game clearly: it’s a de facto ban on internal combustion engine vehicles and, by extension, the American-made liquid fuels they run on.

More than 90% of American households own a car, so EPA’s proposal to ban the vast majority (about 70%) of new gasoline and diesel vehicles in less than 10 years is going to affect almost every one of us. It will set the terms for what cars and trucks we can even consider purchasing in the years ahead, and it will certainly affect those vehicle price tags; It will have massive repercussions across the U.S. economy and supply chains; It could upend and challenge U.S. energy security and potentially the reliability of our electricity.

The House of Representatives will soon vote on three pieces of legislation to rein in the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from (1) imposing and enabling de facto bans on new cars and trucks that run on liquid fuels and (2) from radically transforming the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) into a new nine-figure-government subsidy program for electric vehicles (EVs).

“AFPM supports efforts to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation and believes that any successful strategy must encourage competition among all technologies. What we cannot endorse is regulatory overreach promoting a single technology that completely disregards the benefits of liquid transportation fuels.”

AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson testified before a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee on legislation aimed at preserving U.S. energy security and Americans’ ability to purchase the fuels and vehicles of their choosing while continuing to move the transportation sector in a more efficient and less carbon intensive direction.

“Refiners are pleased to see that EPA has chosen to abandon its unlawful attempt to turn the RFS—a liquid fuel program designed to promote U.S. energy independence—into yet another nine-figure government subsidy program for electric vehicles. eRINs do not belong in the RFS and shouldn’t be resurrected."