Meeting the California LOW CARBON CHALLENGE

摘要

After a couple of years in limbo due to challenges to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the California carbon credit market is heating up again. In mid-]anuary, LCFS credits were worth 55115 per ton, rising from the mid-$20 range a 3^ear earlier. A revised LCFS was readopted by the California Air Resources Board, putting the state's goal of reducing the carbon intensity (CI) of its fuels by 10 percent by 2020 back on track. In 2016, the required reduction is 2 percent from the 2010 baseline, double from the 2015 requirement and increasing steadily until 2020. Ethanol has contributed a big part of the CI reductions realized so far from the LCFS. A December 2014 CARB staff report laying out the upcoming changes to the LCFS said that cumulativelv through mid-2014, 60 percent of the credits were generated from ethanol, followed by renewable diesel at 15 percent, biodiesel at 13 percent and natural gas at 10 percent.