California air regulators approve changes to the climate program that could raise gas prices

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California air regulators have voted to approve changes to a major climate program aimed at curbing global warming emissions that has many critics and could raise gas prices statewide.

The California Air Resources Board has voted for major updates to the low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS), which requires the state to reduce the environmental impact of gas and other transportation fuels by incentivizing producers to reduce emissions.

The plan, approved after a 12-hour meeting Friday evening, will increase the state’s emissions reduction goals and fund charging infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles. It will also phase out incentives for capturing methane emissions from dairy farms turn into fuel.

Environmental groups have criticized the program for boosting the production of biofuels, which come from sources including plant and animal waste, while saying the state should focus more on supporting electric vehicle power supplies. They argue that the proposal fails to adequately address these concerns.

The oil industry, state lawmakers and others have said the agency has not been transparent about how the proposed updates could increase gas prices.

Agency staff last year published a cost-benefit analysis that estimated the original proposal could have led to a 47 cents per gallon increase in gas prices by 2025. But staff has not repeated the analysis since the proposal was later updated and the agency claims this cannot be done. accurately predict gas prices.

“If you’re going to ask drivers to pay a lot, and that’s what this program proposal is going to do, then I think you have to be able to argue that it’s worth paying for it,” said climate economist Danny Cullenward. with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “What concerns me most about this is that I think a lot of the things that are being credited don’t actually help the climate.”

According to an estimate from Cullenward, gas prices could rise by as much as 85 cents per gallon by 2030 and $1.50 per gallon by 2035 under the proposal. Cullenward said his numbers and the estimates initially released by board staff are not an apples-to-apples comparison, in part because his projection is for 2023 dollars and the board staff is for 2021 dollars.

State Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican who represents Palmdale in Southern California, said at the meeting that his constituents cannot afford an increase in gas prices.

“On behalf of the people of the 34th Assembly district, I ask that you not approve these regulations and find other alternatives that will not cost us so much,” he said.

The California Air Resources Board says the program will ultimately reduce the cost of sustainable transportation fuels.

The agency first approved the low-carbon fuel standard in 2009, the first of its kind in the country. It’s part of California’s overall plan to so-called carbon neutrality by 2045meaning the state will remove as much CO2 from the atmosphere as it emits. The state has adopted policies in recent years to phase out the sale of new fossil fuel-powered fuels cars, trucks, trains And lawn mowers.

“The low-carbon fuel standard has already successfully created cheaper and lower-carbon alternatives, and the benefits of the proposal far outweigh those costs,” Steven Cliff, director of the agency, said last month.

Suncheth Bhat, Chief Commercial Officer of EV Realty, an electric vehicle infrastructure company, called the program “one of the most powerful, transformative policies” to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.

The vote comes a day after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom called on the state Legislature for a vote special session to protect some of California’s environmental and other liberal policies ahead of former President Donald Trump’s second term.

“CARB’s justification for this version of the LCFS as a bridge for combustion fuels as we transition to zero emissions needs to be reconsidered in light of the profoundly changed landscape we suddenly find ourselves in this week,” said Adrian Martinez, deputy director of the non -profit organization. Earthjustice, said of Trump’s election victory.

The Trump administration in 2019 revoked California’s jurisdiction to enforce its own tailpipe emissions standards. President Joe Biden later restored the authority of the statethat was confirmed by the federal court.

Future challenges from the Trump administration could lead to lengthy litigation, said David Pettit, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.

“In the meantime, I think we still need something … to improve electric vehicle development and electric vehicle infrastructure,” Pettit said. “The LCFS is one way we might be able to do that.”

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Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.