Woman plugging electric charger into car. image by SouthWorks.OPINION – Strengthening and improving the Low Carbon Fuel Standard this year will ensure that it builds on this success in its next decade, setting yet another example of California’s leadership for the world. We strongly support this vital work and urge policymakers to act now.
Rush hour on the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles. (Photo: Joseph Sohm via Shutterstock)OPINION: Transportation accounts for the greatest share of greenhouse gas emissions in California, at 41 percent and trending up. So it should come as a relief that California’s Air Resources Board recently approved a suite of clean transportation rules that will not only help reduce carbon emissions from vehicles, but will help consumers who are feeling the pain of rising fuel costs in California.
A smog-tinged view in black and white of Century City, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. (Photo: Trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)OPINION: What can you do for a kid who wants to play soccer but can’t, because air pollution and the child’s asthma don’t mix on bad air days? It’s the kind of question that comes up regularly for me, as a doctor specializing in asthma and allergies.
California motorists in a traffic jam. (Photo: Shutterstock)OPINION: Just as the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requires electric utilities to phase in a specific amount of clean energy in our electricity mix, the LCFS mandates that the oil industry phase in cleaner fuels to tackle the state’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions: the fuel that runs our cars, trucks, and buses.
OPINION: Most of us don’t think twice about our options when we stop to fill our tank with gasoline. But what if you knew you had a choice of fuels, not just of brands?
It is fitting that the Western States Petroleum Association’s latest critique of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard invoked a 22-year-old desperado movie. The message that Californians should continue to rely exclusively on a single fuel for our cars and trucks, much of which comes from unstable sources, is outdated. And just like Thelma and Louise,
California was first in the nation to mandate a 10 percent reduction in the overall carbon intensity of fuel sold in the state by 2020. However, we will not assume a real national leadership role in this important endeavor without first stepping back from California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Program to reassess critical feasibility,