It has been no secret since the Biden Administration took control in Washington, they have been working to enact regulations and laws to incentivize what many would consider to be the ?green agenda.? While many agree that trying to better the environment is a noble goal and something everybody should work for, there are others that are feeling that this is all a hoax or an effort to grease the squeaky wheels of extreme environmentalists.
If the Biden administration?s push for electric cars and no fossil fuels has done nothing else, it has gotten the big oil companies and the biofuels advocates to call a temporary ceasefire. For as long as we have had biofuels, we have had big oil trying to break our backs by using their lobbying power to restrict the use of biofuels at the pump. Look no further than the fight over year-round E15. However, as this push to completely electrify a transportation grid that isn?t built to handle it and relies on the same fossil fuels to support it, the agricultural industry and fuel makers are coming together to at least pump the brakes, pun intended, and get the Administration to think about not putting the cart ahead of the horse.
Environmental regulations have changed the landscape of how fuels are produced and required a much more environmentally friendly process to take care of the planet. Biofuels have been available for years to help reduce emissions and give us a renewable fuel source that is here and now, not thirty years into the future. However, that biofuels message has been seeming to fall on deaf ears for the past few administrations. Well, maybe ?deaf ears? isn?t the right way to word it. We have been told by the past two or three presidents that they are going to do all they can to help make sure this industry can keep doing all it can to keep helping the environment, but then turn around and use their authority to completely gut it for big oil, or for the lithium battery industry. (Do your own research to discover who benefits from the lithium boost.)
Electric cars are great if they fit into what works for your life or business. However, the technology is still not as practical for some applications as fuel. But instead of trying to find ways to either coexist or improve what we do with fuels, the current administration is only giving lip service to electric vehicles. Which are going to involve a cost that is not feasible for many Americans, nor will it have an infrastructure to support a mass migration to them in the short term.
The EPA has been following its marching orders from the White House and making sure that it can do all it can to inhibit the oil and biofuels industry, all while smiling and saying that they agree that biofuels have a place in the environmental discussions. The latest proposal is in the tailpipe emissions regulations that they have put forth.
It’s because of this that the oil and biofuels industries have come together to voice their concerns, along with their supporters, over what they feel is a hastily put together plan that could cause more economic and infrastructural harm to our country. Recently, over 100 groups and companies came together and sent a letter voicing these concerns to President Biden.
Will Hupman is Vice President of Downstream Policy at the American Petroleum Institute, who represents most of the fuel industry. He talks about the willingness of the industry to help achieve attainable environmental goals in a responsible way. He says that EVs are not an entire option, and that the Biden administration only has a goal of banning the internal combustion engines.
Brooke Appleton is Vice President of Public Policy for the National Corn Growers Association, and she says corn producers are uniquely placed to be a contributor to lower emissions and provide the cleaner fuels to help reach these goals.
You can learn more about the organizations involved in this letter and the contents in the link listed above.
