While refineries across the nation work overtime to produce the fuels that make us go, and more recently, even the hand sanitizers we use to fight COVID-19, politics surrounding the 15-year-old Renewable Fuel Standard threaten to shut them down.

The RFS was put in place in 2005 amid rising fuel costs, war in the Middle East, and uncertainty about our domestic energy future. A lot has changed. The United States now leads the world in energy production, surpassing all expectations at that time. The RFS is, therefore, obsolete policy, propped up only by regional politicos and agribusiness lobbyists who benefit from its inflexible mandates. But the swamp does not easily surrender a good deal.