Tell Obama’s EPA not to cave to industry pressure on palm oil and climate change.

The EPA recently confirmed that the destruction of rainforests for palm oil is having a devastating impact on our climate. In fact, this deforestation, in large part for palm oil plantations, has led Indonesia to become the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, just behind China and the United States.

These severe climate and forest impacts should ensure that palm-oil based biofuels stay out of the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates that American motorists use 36 billion gallons of biofuel in their cars and trucks by 2022. But not if the powerful palm oil lobby has anything to do with it. A massive lobby effort led by palm oil companies Cargill and Wilmar is being waged to persuade the EPA to overturn its own climate science on palm oil.

Tell Obama’s EPA not to cave to industry pressure on palm oil and climate change.

Palm oil companies know this is jeopardizing news to their multi-billion dollar industry. In the United States, the EPA’s decision could also determine to what extent the U.S. becomes a major palm oil buyer. Consumption of palm oil in the United States is growing at a much faster rate than anywhere else in the world–making sense that industry reps from Indonesia and Malaysia are concerned about protecting palm oil’s reputation here.

The palm oil industry will do whatever it takes to maximize profits at the expense of destruction of the forest, species, and communities of Indonesia and Malaysia–where 85% of the world’s palm oil is cultivated.

Please urge the EPA to adhere to its own scientific findings over listening to palm oil industry giants such as Cargill and Wilmar.

		For the forests,
		Ashley Schaeffer Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner