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US Appeals Court Says California Can Set its Own Low Carbon Fuel Standard:
Late last week, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit published an opinion (PDF) stating that California's regulation of fuel sales based on a lifecycle analysis of carbon emissions did not violate federal commerce rules.
Since 2011, California has had a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program, which requires fuel sellers to reduce their fuel's carbon intensity by certain deadlines. If oil, ethanol, or other fuel sellers can't meet those deadlines, they can buy credits from companies that have complied with the standard.
California measures "fuel intensity" over the lifecycle of the fuel, so oil extracted from tar sands (which might require a lot of processing) would be penalized more than lighter oil that requires minimal processing. Ethanol made with coal would struggle to meet its carbon intensity goals more than ethanol made from gas.
Plaintiffs representing the ethanol and oil industries have challenged these rules in the court system. Most recently, they challenged California's 2015 version of the rules. (In September 2018, the state's Air Resources Board announced new amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard rules, but those are not discussed in the 9th Circuit's most recent opinion.)
[...] The opinion noted:
The California legislature is rightly concerned with the health and welfare of humans living in the State of California... These persons may be subjected, for example, to crumbling or swamped coastlines, rising water, or more intense forest fires caused by higher temperatures and related droughts, all of which many in the scientific communities believe are caused or intensified by the volume of greenhouse gas emissions.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday January 24 2019, @08:24PM (5 children)
It is amazing how no claim of businesses running away from profit because of regulations has ever materialized. Ever.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by VLM on Thursday January 24 2019, @08:44PM (3 children)
The purpose of regulation is to punish smaller more nimble competitors while benefiting status quo large competitors.
Under that concept, the purpose is to reduce competition in the market and increase prices by forcing everyone out except the big players, who coincidentally donate the most to election campaigns.
Carbon not being free, you'd think "the market" would take care of this. I can turn two barrels of diesel in my tank into one barrel of biodiesel in your truck with an enormous about of environmental damage along the way, or I can turn two barrels of diesel in my tank into two barrels of diesel in your truck; either my production is twice as high, or
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @09:00PM (1 child)
And herein lies the problem with idiots, they hear one sound-bite that gets them all emotional and they stop using their brains.
Regulation existing solely to punish small business is about as accurate as all white males being inherently evil and racist.
Yes, some regulation is crafted by lobbyists to protect their industry but most regulation is about protecting people/places/things.
PS: your last paragraph is unfinished nonsense.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 25 2019, @06:49AM
This is *VLM* we're talking about. Go read his, ahem, scientific justification for his racism sometime; it makes about as much sense and is based on about as much reality as his "regulations are about punishing SMBs" idiocy. The guy's irredeemable; the sooner the earth opens up and swallows him the better.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @09:12PM
Depends on the regulation. In ideal terms, the purpose to regulation is, in the corporate race to the bottom, to raise the bottom. Whether that damages smaller companies more than larger companies depends on how close to the floor said companies were operating. In the real world, of course, regulations can be abused, like anything else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @12:26AM
Of course business don't run away from profit. They do run away from losses, though. At some point, the successive layer of regulation makes doing business, in a location or an industry, no longer profitable. At that point, the business simply stops. It can move, stop doing the regulated activity, or go bankrupt.
Perhaps this regulation will not stop the fuel producers. It probably won't. Nor will the next one. Probably not even the one after that. But there is a point at which it will no longer be profitable to produce a particular blend demanded by California -- and they will have to stop producing it.
But I'm sure they'll have all the solar panels and windmills they need by then. Won't be a problem. Don't worry about it.