Environmentalists Urge Common-Ground Reform for Biofuels Mandate after Refinery Bankruptcy

Normally, we wouldn’t be shedding tears about the financial woes of a fossil energy giant. But the Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS), the biofuels law that is crippling Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), is also a disaster for the environment. The RFS is propping up food-based biofuels that are even dirtier than dirty old oil. That’s why major conservation and environmental groups are calling for a scale-back of biofuel mandates, something that would benefit refiners like PES.

Rather than a ‘swamp’ solution that only benefits Big Corn and Big Oil, potentially at the cost of taxpayers, Congress should listen to Democratic voices who want pro-environment reforms of biofuel policy. A bipartisan reform bill could be that very rare thing- legislation that oil refiners and environmentalists both support.