Here’s what I believe: The refining and petrochemical industries — our engineers, operators, planners, chemists, innovators and products — are essential to a sustainable future.

We hope you’ll join us in telling the EPA that American-made liquid fuels are part of a lower carbon future.

But, right now, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a de facto ban on internal combustion engine vehicles — cars and trucks that run on American-made fuels — in an effort to reduce emissions from cars and trucks. Their approach only measures emissions generated from the tailpipe, which means in the not-too-distant future, our only new car options may be electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

EPA’s approach is short-sighted. They’re ignoring emissions generated during the production and charging of vehicles, and they’re discarding the myriad ways refiners and petrochemical manufacturers are lowering the emissions profile of internal combustion engine vehicles and liquid fuels.

There is more than one way to reduce emissions and our U.S. refiners and petrochemical manufacturers are leading the way. Here are some of the ways we are doing just that:

• We’re increasing energy efficiency and reducing emissions from our operations.

  Our industries are employing and planning to deploy a full spectrum of low-emission energy resources — from wind and solar to small modular nuclear technology — and we’re improving processes to maximize energy efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint. 

• Cleaner fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals, paired with optimized auto designs, have helped today’s vehicle fleet become the cleanest, most efficient on record.

  Today’s vehicle fleet — which continues to be dominated by internal combustion engine vehicles that run on liquid fuels — is 99% cleaner for common pollutants than models in the 1970s. And while the fleet is bigger, heavier and more powerful than ever, it also has the highest fuel economy and lowest CO2 emissions rate on record.

• We’re scaling the production of innovative, lower carbon intensity fuels.

  We’re among the world’s leaders in producing fuels like renewable diesel, renewable natural gas and sustainable aviation fuel — fuels that can dramatically reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.

I want to be clear, we at AFPM EMPOWER are not against electric vehicles. In fact, we’re proud that U.S. refiners and petrochemical manufacturers are critical in the development and scaling of the EV industry. EVs will be part of a lower carbon future, and so too will American-made liquid fuels.

We need you to help us tell the EPA that there is more than one way to reduce emissions, and American-made liquid fuels are part of the solution.

Allison + the AFPM EMPOWER team