SolveClimate: California Puts Fuel on World’s First Low-Carbon Diet
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Thursday, April 23, at SolveClimate.
California regulators tonight approved the world’s first low-carbon fuel standard, a bold set of performance-based fuel rules that are being closely watched in more than a dozen other states and countries, as well as in Washington.
Many of the program’s details are still in flux, to be worked out by the Air Resources Board before the standard takes effect in 2012.
The goal was clear, though: achieve a 10 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020. Fully implemented, California’s LCFS is expected to cut those emissions by 15 million metric tons a year.
“The big picture is we want to incentivize the use of electricity for vehicles. … We want to incentivize innovation,” said Air Resources Board member Daniel Sperling.
