On December 16th, California’s Air Resources Board voted unanimously to uphold the carbon reduction targets of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the state’s plan to reduce the carbon intensity of fuel by 10% by 2020.
The regulation has come under fire by industry organizations like Western States Petroleum Association, who claim that the LCFS cannot be met in later years of the program due to lack of fuel availability. During 2011, E2's
Advanced Biofuel Market Report was published and provided evidence that the LCFS goals can be met.
In concert with other groups, E2 testified that strengthening the LCFS would provide the investor certainty needed to expand production of low carbon fuels. Fuel providers Solazyme, Inbicon, Clean Energy, Pacific Ethanol, and DuPont all testified on the dropping production costs of biofuels and clean jobs provided by their companies.
Air Resources Board responded by giving the certainty requested in its unanimous vote, and including a provision to directly account for high carbon crude oils. This provision will make the use of tar sands in California very costly and less appealing to refineries.
Prior to the Board hearing, E2 delivered
a letter on behalf of the low carbon fuel industry & investors, coordinated a team of speakers,
Op-Eds, and met with Board members individually to educate & support this vote.
E2 has proposed an expansion to the credit trading market (see
E2 Proposal for Expansiuon of LCFS Credit Trading) to increase the financial benefit of producing lower carbon fuels. E2 will begin working on this expansion and other program augmentations in 2012.
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