The United States is more than offsetting emissions reductions from new fuel economy standards by exporting gasoline and diesel to countries with looser emissions standards, an Associated Press investigation revealed this week.
“Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. has reduced more carbon pollution from energy than any other nation, about 475 million tons between 2008 and 2013,” AP reports.
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“Yet the U.S. is sending more fuel than ever to other parts of the world, where efforts to address resulting pollution are just getting under way, if advancing at all,” Cappiello writes. “U.S. exports of gasoline and diesel released roughly one billion tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere elsewhere during the same period.”
“It’s a false image,” said Onel Masardule of the Indigenous People’s Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative in Peru. “In reality, the U.S is still contaminating.”