Monday, January 5, 2009

11 East Coast states create joint fuels standard

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has announced that the Bay State will join 10 other states in New England and along the Atlantic Coast in creating a Low Carbon Fuel Standard aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions from fuels for vehicles and other uses.

Representatives from the 11 states -- Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont -- last week signed a letter of intent aimed at pushing the initiative forward. That letter was made public today.

Under the agreement, the 11 states, which include all members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) plus Pennsylvania, will work together to create a common fuel standard that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a technology-neutral basis, according to a statement from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).

According to the letter, a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) will be a “market-based, technologically neutral policy to address the carbon content of fuels by requiring reductions in the average lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions per unit of useful energy.”

Under terms of the agreement, the states have committed to participating in an effort to analyze low carbon fuel supply options and to develop a framework for a regional LCFS in the Northeast-Mid-Atlantic region. The states will also collaborate with the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), which is conducting a study of a LCFS for the region. The states also agree to work cooperatively with other states and the federal governmen, and to seek to influence the design of any federal LCFS or other fuels policy that is proposed.

Such a standard is immediately applicable to transportation but could also be applied to fuel used for heating buildings, for industrial processes and for electricity generation, according to statements from the EEA.

The idea of an LCFS was originally made public by the state of California last January, when the state announced the first state-sponsored initiative in the country. Last spring, Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Sal DiMasi all threw their support to developing a similar standard in the Bay State. In July, the Governor signed the Clean Energy Biofuels Act, which among other provisions required Massachusetts to seek an agreement with its fellow RGGI member states to implement a LCFS on a regional basis.

The Letter of Intent also notes that the interconnected nature of fuel distribution in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions makes a regional approach likely easier to implement than state-by-state regulations.

The Letter of Intent commits the 11 signatory states to draft a memorandum of understanding concerning the development of a regional low carbon fuel standard program, to be forwarded for consideration by the governors of the states by December 31, 2009, or as soon thereafter as possible.