California regulators Thursday issued a far-reaching proposal to slash carbon emissions from transportation fuels, setting the stage for a national battle over how to reduce the damage to the global climate from gasoline and diesel combustion.
The low-carbon fuel standard, if approved next month by the state's Air Resources Board, would be the first in the nation to restrict greenhouse gases produced by a fuel, from its source to its burning.
Eleven states are considering similar rules, and President Obama has called for a national low-carbon fuel standard as part of his initiative to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by mid-century.
Air board chairwoman Mary Nichols said the proposed rule was a "comprehensive, cradle-to-grave approach" that would spur innovation and competition in the alternative fuels market.
But some members of California's beleaguered renewable-fuels industry greeted the initiative with outrage. Tom Koehler, spokesman for Pacific Ethanol, said the proposal was "a perversion of science and a prescription for disaster."
California is the first state to pass a comprehensive law to restrict carbon dioxide and other emissions across its economy. Transportation accounts for one-third of the nation's greenhouse gas releases. Scientists say the emissions are trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere and changing its climate, which will cause droughts, floods, water shortages and species extinctions.
The fuel standard is a key element in the state's climate plan, along with an initiative to regulate the engines and bodies of vehicles for carbon emissions. That proposal is under review by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The fuel proposal announced Thursday is projected to reduce carbon emissions by 16 million metric tons by 2020. It would result in the replacement of 20% of the fossil fuel used by California cars with cleaner alternatives by 2020, including electricity, biofuels, hydrogen and other options, the board said.
By forcing refineries, producers and importers to reduce the "carbon intensity" of their fuel by 10% by 2020, and by increasing percentages after that, the air board is taking a far different approach from the Renewable Fuels Standard that President Bush pushed through Congress in 2007.
That law required that 36 billion gallons of biofuels be sold by 2022, of which 15 billion could be ethanol derived from corn. That rule, said Daniel Sperling, an air board member and a UC Davis transportation fuel expert, spurred "a massive expansion of corn ethanol."
