WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rob Benedict, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) Vice President of Petrochemicals & Midstream, today released the following statement on the recently reintroduced Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act.
Pyrolysis oil allows petrochemical manufacturers and recyclers to reduce the need for virgin petroleum-based feedstocks. Our industries cannot reap the benefits of advanced recycling without being able to take advantage of the substance’s broad uses, especially as a feedstock to make building blocks for new plastics.
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.
When Congress created the Renewable Fuel Standard, the intent was clear. The RFS was supposed to build a market for American-grown biofuels and support domestic energy security. Today, EPA wants to deviate wildly from this course. Instead of maintaining the RFS as a program for liquid transportation biofuels, EPA’s RFS proposal for 2023 to 2025 would begin transforming the RFS into yet another huge government subsidy for electric vehicles.
California has officially asked the Biden administration for permission to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2035—an unprecedented move that will deny millions of Americans the ability to choose for themselves the types of cars or trucks they want to drive. The decision is entirely up to President Biden...