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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 is extremely disappointed that the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program was allowed to expire and strongly urges the Senate to pass H.R. 4470 as soon as possible so that our members can resume their longstanding, collaborative relationship with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) via the CFATS program. Our industries remain committed to providing the best security possible while the program’s regulations remain unauthorized.."

“Just as we were proud to testify in support of these bills last month, AFPM is proud to support the legislation being marked up today...As members review these bills carefully, appreciating exactly what they do and do not do, the choice to support them should be obvious, especially for those with fuel and petrochemical manufacturing facilities in their districts.” – Chet Thompson, AFPM President & CEO

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.”