(Sacramento, April 22, 2009) The American Lung Association in California strongly supports the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) proposal to adopt the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020 and urges the board to adopt the standard without delay at its April 23 hearing.
Transportation is the largest source of global warming emissions in California, responsible for approximately 38 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. This precedent-setting standard will help the state kick its petroleum addiction and move to a cleaner, more sustainable transportation system.
This is a first-ever regulation addressing the global warming impact of transportation fuels. The regulation will be the model for similar efforts at the state and federal levels.
California’s LCFS is part of the three-tiered strategy to reduce greenhouse gases from transportation that includes: pursuing cleaner fuels (such as hydrogen), cleaner vehicle technologies (such as hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles and fuel cells), and reducing driving. This innovative measure will advance development and use of low carbon fuels that may include advanced biofuels, electricity and fuel cells.
“The American Lung Association in California is counting on the LCFS to take the state a giant step forward toward reaching the state’s global warming reduction targets in AB 32, legislation that set the nation's first statewide cap on global warming pollution,” said Trisha Murakawa, board chair, American Lung Association in California. “We support the California Air Resources Board’s leadership in developing the LCFS rule and believe this groundbreaking rule is a key step in the fight against global warming pollution and over-dependence on polluting petroleum fuels.”
CARB estimates that the LCFS will provide 10 percent of the total greenhouse gas reductions needed to reach AB 32 goals and almost one quarter of the reductions needed from the transportation sector under AB 32.
The American Lung Association strongly urges CARB to adopt the staff recommendation to include “indirect land use effects” in the standard, ensuring the final standard accounts for global warming gases released from land conversion to produce fuels (such as clearing forests to grow crops for fuel). The American Lung Association also urges the board to ensure the standard promotes the cleanest, ultra-low carbon fuels, and provides for careful review of air quality and local community impact as new fuels and infrastructure are introduced.
“If CARB does not account for the greenhouse gases released through land conversion, the standard could end up increasing global warming gases from transportation fuels and having the opposite effect from what is intended,” said Murakawa.
The American Lung Association in California has a long history of fighting for cleaner fuels and cleaner vehicles to advance progress toward meeting state and federal air quality goals and to achieve important public health improvements. A study released by the American Lung Association in California last year (Road to a Cleaner Future, March, 2008) found that the total cost to public health and society of the existing petroleum fueled motor vehicle fleet is more than $10 billion in 2010.
Carbon dioxide emissions, a key pollutant resulting from burning fuels, significantly contribute to global warming.
