Set ambitious goal for low-carbon fuel use
California is a global leader in tackling climate change, yet it is infamous for cars, traffic and smog. In fact, the state’s automobiles produce almost 40 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other source. The fact that we Californians rely so heavily on our cars — and the gasoline that fuels them is so dirty — creates a challenge for policymakers working to meet California’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Luckily, regulators in Sacramento have the opportunity this year to address this conundrum when the California Air Resources Board considers strengthening and extending the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which addresses the climate effect of the fuels we use to power our cars.
This comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeks to weaken federal vehicle fuel efficiency and emission standards, and threatens to challenge California’s authority to advance clean-car standards.
Analysis by independent consultant Cerulogy, commissioned by Ceres, NextGen and the Union of Concerned Scientists, shows that there will be sufficient low-carbon fuel supplies to support an ambitious 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target of 22 percent for California’s standard. The current target is 10 percent, and the air board is considering a proposal for 20 percent.
The low-carbon fuel standard reduces the carbon intensity of transportation fuel sold in California by displacing gasoline through the use of lower carbon alternative fuels, including electricity and biofuels such as ethanol. Carbon intensity is a measure of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, distribution and use of transportation fuels. While electric vehicle programs and fuel efficiency standards aim to improve vehicles to make them less polluting, the technology-neutral standard works to reduce the climate pollution of the automotive fuels themselves.
Fuel producers have a choice of how to meet the low carbon fuel standard targets. They can: Add more lowcarbon fuels to their fuel mix; improve the efficiency of fuel production; or purchase credits from producers of alternative fuels. This flexibility has been critical to the program’s success to date.
Since 2011, the low-carbon fuel standard has helped avoid the emission of 33 million tons of carbon pollution and the use of almost 10 billion gallons of gasoline. It has also helped avoid more than $1 billion in public health costs because lower-carbon replacements for gasoline and diesel are almost always cleaner for the air. This is good news for Californians, especially the many low-income families living near freeways where vehicle pollution hits the hardest.
In the past seven years, more than $2 billion in lowcarbon fuel investment has flowed into California, helping to create more than 300 clean transportation companies employing 20,000 workers.
The air board will consider proposed amendments to extend and strengthen the low-carbon fuel standard by setting a 2030 carbon intensity reduction target of 20 percent, a crucial step toward California meeting its climate targets. The amendments also include additional low-carbon fuel credit pathways, including the development of alternative jet fuel, and ensures the low-carbon fuel standard remains a model policy that can be adopted by other states, helping to expand the market for low-carbon fuels.
Cerulogy’s recent report, in addition to analysis provided by the staff of the Air Resources Board, shows that the program’s goals can be stronger than the proposed amendments suggest. In fact, there likely will be enough supplies of clean fuel to support a 2030 carbon reduction target of at least 22 percent, especially if reductions are raised after 2025. By increasing the carbon intensity reduction target to at least 22 percent, the state will avoid significant pollution in the coming decade and provide the proper long-term signal to attract continued investment in California’s low-carbon fuel economy.
The state can, and must, go further than what has been put forth to ensure that we meet our climate goals. Ambitiously strengthening the program is essential to California remaining a world leader in low-carbon fuel development and adoption.