Congress Investigates How Marathon Petroleum and Koch Network Influenced Clean Cars Rollbacks

https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/29/congress-investigation-marathon-koch-oil-clean-car-rollbacks?fbclid=IwAR3wS9C8WIXpT-8WezsNKUGfu2xt_8B1LJr-5VOvPj2D5YLTUqhvLBnaxas

By Dana Drugmand • Friday, May 29, 2020 - 12:45

On Thursday, May 28, several Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, along with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), sent a letter to Marathon Petroleum seeking information on the oil company’s involvement in the Trump administration’s rollback of clean car standards. The Congressmembers are also investigating Marathon’s coordination with, and financial ties to, various free-market groups and whether those relationships are compatible with the groups’ tax-exempt status.

The letter follows an October 29, 2019 House Oversight Environment Subcommittee hearing on oil industry influence in the vehicle fuel economy rollback, and comes one day after 23 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit challenging the rollback.

The Trump administration’s Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, finalized on March 31, weakens greenhouse gas emission regulations and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards from a 5 percent annual increase to 1.5 percent yearly increase. Under the new rule, fuel efficiency for new cars and light trucks would decrease from 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 to 40 miles per gallon. Laxer fuel economy standards means vehicles will consume more gasoline, which explicitly benefits the oil industry. According to Senator Whitehouse’s testimony during the House Oversight hearing last fall, the Obama-era clean car standards were expected to save Americans $1.7 trillion dollars in fuel savings, which is lost revenue for oil companies like Marathon.

As the members of Congress write in their letter to Marathon President and CEO Michael J. Hennigan, the weakening of the clean car standards “raises serious questions about whether the Trump Administration is endangering the health and safety of the American people for the sake of higher profits for oil companies.”

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“Given the large number of tax exempt, non-profit organizations that appear to have been activated in support of the oil industry’s campaign to weaken emissions standards, we have questions about the relationship between industry and these organizations, as well as whether their operations are consistent with their tax exempt status,” Sen. Whitehouse and Reps. Harley Rouda, Carolyn B. Maloney, and Rashida Tlaib wrote in their letter to Marathon. Maloney is chair of the House Oversight Committee, while Rouda is chair, and Tlaib vice chair, of the Environment subcommittee.

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