While President Obama calls on the world to have the political courage to address climate change, his Administration is putting the finishing touches on a proposal to gut America’s only climate law: the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The RFS is responsible for removing the carbon emissions equivalent of 124 million cars from U.S. roadways.
Two dozen executives from the advanced biofuels industry, which produces the lowest carbon fuel in the world, wrote to President Obama in September, warning that the President’s new RFS proposal would “allow oil companies to avoid their obligations under the law,” and “gut the core concept behind the law.”
And numerous media reports allege that the proposed changes to the RFS came as a direct result of political pressure from the oil industry; the very type of political pressure President Obama is calling on world leaders to confront.
While it is not clear why the Obama Administration is turning its back on perhaps America’s most successful clean energy policy just as he prepares to issue a call to arms on climate change in Paris, world leaders have good reason to question the President’s credibility if he finalizes his plan this month to gut the RFS.