WASHINGTON, D.C.—Progress Vitality, the nation’s largest biofuel commerce affiliation, submitted new feedback to the California Air Assets Board (CARB) immediately, criticizing the board’s newest updates to California’s Low Carbon Gas Commonplace (LCFS) for unfairly singling out American biofuels in a means that may make it laborious for them to generate credit underneath this system. Particularly, Progress Vitality objected to a proposed “sustainability certification” requirement, calling it “an unfair and pointless double penalty for corn starch bioethanol.”
“The [economic impact analysis] (EIA) acknowledges potential direct and oblique land use change (LUC) ‘is at the least partially (and probably absolutely) accounted for by the LUC scores added to crop-derived pathways,’” mentioned Progress Vitality Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Chris Bliley within the feedback. “This acknowledgement renders the necessity for a sustainability certification moot as potential LUC considerations for crop-based feedstocks are addressed.”
Moreover, farmers that produce corn and different crops used within the manufacturing of biofuels can be required to make use of local weather sensible agriculture practices to qualify for the “sustainability certification.” Nevertheless, those self same farmers would nonetheless not obtain any credit score for the emissions-reducing impression of deploying these practices underneath the LCFS.
“Whereas the latest proposal particulars the ‘greatest environmental administration practices’ required for biomass utilized in gasoline pathways, and people CSA practices consequence within the discount of carbon emissions, CARB continues to ignore these and different practices when factoring carbon depth (CI) scores,” Bliley added. “Using these practices for measured carbon discount isn’t new. Different state businesses are utilizing a few of these similar practices to scale back the discharge of soil carbon within the state’s pure and dealing lands.”
“CSA practices are an essential part to bioethanol’s continued efforts to get to net-zero,” Bliley added. “We urge CARB to acknowledge these practices and their carbon-reduction potential and permit CSA practices to be thought of when figuring out a pathway’s CI.”
Learn extra in regards to the sustainability certification and local weather sensible agriculture within the full feedback as submitted right here.
