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Choosing to miss a legal deadline, the California Energy Commission June 27 gave its staff two more months to develop a mandated state plan to increase the use of alternative transportation fuels in order to reduce petroleum dependence and carbon emissions. “It is with great trepidation that a regulatory agency suggests not meeting a legislative deadline,” said Commissioner James Boyd, presiding member of the CEC’s Transportation Committee. However, CEC staff needs the additional time to obtain more accurate and recent data, and provide stakeholders greater input into the final recommendations. The staff intends to complete a final plan by August for adoption in September by the commission, which then will pass it onto the California Air Resources Board for final approval. The state plan would implement AB 1007, which aims to create a new paradigm in the transportation fuel market by promoting non-petroleum alternatives. The Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 1007 in response to California’s burgeoning transportation energy demand. The law requires the Energy Commission and Air Board to jointly develop a state plan to increase the use of alternative fuels and reduce petroleum dependence and emissions under milestones for 2012, 2017, and 2022. The Energy Commission and the Air Resources Board extended the assessment to 2030 and 2050 to provide additional time to evaluate alternative transportation fuels and technologies with longer development times. The legislation mandates a full fuel cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions. The assessment also is to examine other air pollutants--including sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and toxics--as well as water pollution and other multi-media effects. The commission passed a resolution adopting a “well-to-wheels” report by its consultant TIAX evaluating alternative transportation fuels from a full fuel cycle perspective (Circuit, Feb. 23, 2007). “One of the big challenges in a low carbon fuel standard is determining how to produce these low carbon fuels in a sustainable manner and defining what we mean by sustainability,” said John Shears, research coordinator for the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies. To prevent backsliding on environmental quality, the resolution called both for reducing petroleum use in transportation and improving air quality. The report will address emissions impacts from converting agricultural land into biofuels production and other land use impacts in future updates. “It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to analyze and respond to each of these issues--increased (energy) demand growth, greater petroleum price volatility, and more environmental impacts,” said Tim Olson, CEC project director. “What’s the comprehensive impact when we look at these together? AB 1007 blends a lot of these objectives into one report and compels us to address each of these.” The assessment will be used as a matrix to develop a low carbon fuel standard for California as mandated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s executive order to help meet AB 32 greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. AB 32 mandates that the Air Resources Board adopt measures to reduce CO2 emissions in California by 175 million metric tons by 2020. The state’s transportation sector emits about 43 percent of the targeted gases. In its previous Integrated Energy Policy Reports the Energy Commission established goals of filling 20 percent of California’s transportation energy with alternative fuels by 2020 and 30 percent by 2030. “There are no silver bullets, no single strategy,” Boyd said. “Supply hasn’t kept up with demand. You need to look at the entire system before you make changes. Climate change has finally forced that on us.”

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