The move is the clearest sign yet that, if elected, Clinton would seek to adjust the regulation, called the Renewable Fuel Standard, possibly hurting her chances in corn-growing states like Iowa where she faces a tough battle against Republican rival Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

The Renewable Fuel Standard, created by Congress in 2005, mandates that transportation fuel sold in the U.S. contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels.

It was intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions and expand the U.S. renewable fuels sector while lowering reliance on imported oil. It is opposed by the oil industry and environmentalists and has been criticized as a mere subsidy to corn producers.

Clinton advisers have contacted the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to discuss whether a policy like California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a market-based system rather than a mandate, could be applied at a national level to replace or augment the Renewable Fuel Standard, and other issues, CARB officials said.

Mary Nichols, head of the CARB, said she discussed the state’s regulations with Clinton advisers.

While a backer of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Nichols said she told Clinton’s advisers they could avoid political backlash by focusing on other carbon-reduction strategies instead, such as expanding electric vehicle sales and cleaning up emissions from coal-fired electricity.

Nichols did not provide further details on the discussions.

A Clinton campaign official, who asked not to be named, confirmed the discussions with CARB but gave no further details.

A campaign spokesman, Tyrone Gayle, said the campaign has been seeking advice from “a diverse set of stakeholders.” He added that the Clinton campaign “does not support replacing the RFS with a national low-carbon fuel standard” but did not elaborate.

Former Obama administration climate and energy adviser Heather Zichal said on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week that the Renewable Fuel Standard was broken, but that a Clinton administration could make “modifications” to fix it.

“Mandates aren’t necessarily a perfect way to regulate,” Zichal said at the event.

The U.S. corn lobby hopes to convince both Clinton and Trump to uphold the regulation, which requires a doubling of U.S. biofuels use to 36 billion gallons per year by 2022, when congressionally mandated volume targets are set to expire. The program is designed to last indefinitely after that.

Environmentalists, anti-hunger activists and the oil sector have called for the rule to be repealed or changed because they say it raises food and fuel costs without delivering the emissions reductions that it was intended to achieve.

Market-based system

The California regulation, a key part of the state’s effort to combat climate change, requires a 10 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020, but leaves it up to companies to decide how to reach that target.

California enacted the Low Carbon Fuel Standard in 2007 targeting oil refiners and distributors that sell in the state’s market. It angered Midwestern ethanol interests because the regulation counts the carbon dioxide footprint of transporting biofuels into the state for blending, effectively blocking many of those imports. Oil companies have complained that the regulation is costly.

Clinton in May expressed support for the federal Renewable Fuel Standard in an opinion piece published in an Iowa newspaper, but said it could be improved.

Clinton’s openness to overhauling the Renewable Fuel Standard appears to contrast with Trump’s position. During the state-by-state battle for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump said he supported the biofuel mandates set out in the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Corn and ethanol industry lobbyists said they have been talking with both the Clinton and Trump campaigns to argue in favor of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

— Reporting for Reuters by Valerie Volcovici in Washington, D.C. and Rory Carroll in San Francisco. Additional reporting for Reuters by Joe White in Detroit and Chris Prentice in New York.

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Watersheds on the Olympic Peninsula, east side of the central Cascade Mountains including Yakima and Wenatchee, and Walla Walla region, which are vital to apple and wine production, will be hit hardest with drought conditions, the governor’s office said.

Snowpack is a mere seven per cent of normal in the Olympic Mountains. It ranges from eight to 45 per cent of normal across the Cascades, and is 67 percent of normal in the Walla Walla region.

“We can’t wait any longer; we have to prepare now for drought conditions that are in store for much of the state,” said Inslee. “Snowpack is at record lows, and we have farms, vital agricultural regions, communities and fish that are going to need our support.”

An unusually warm winter has caused much of the precipitation to fall as rain, leaving mountain snowpack a fraction of normal. And a healthy snowpack is what would slowly feed rivers across the state and sustains farms and fish through the drier summer months.

Short- and long-range weather forecasts are not expected to bring relief, calling for warmer and drier weather.

With snowpack statewide averaging 27 per cent of normal, 34 of the state’s 62 watersheds are expected to receive less than 75 per cent of their normal water supplies.

The Washington Department of Ecology has requested US$9 million in drought relief from the legislature. The money would pay for agricultural and fisheries projects, emergency water-right permits, changes to existing water rights, and grant water-right transfers.

For now, water suppliers in the Seattle, Tacoma and Everett areas are in decent shape and are not projecting much hardship, according to the governor’s office.

The drought emergency comes as California battles its worst drought in decades.

— Rory Carroll reports on climate issues and the energy sector for Reuters from San Francisco.

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