Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
not be allowed. If there were to be enough gas to replace
coal, US emissions would go down by
million tonnes
per year, something that should be desired, but certainly
is not encouraged by an RPS. Nuclear power would
reduce emissions even further.
I have said we have to move away from fossil eventually,
but greenhouse gas reduction is the goal, and using any
fuel now in an emission-free fashion meets that goal and
gives time to develop better longer-term solutions. We
should be setting GRS not just RPS.
Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS)
California introduced a Low Carbon Fuel Standard
(LCFS) in
. It mandates that the fuel used in trans-
portation has to be modi
ed so that for the same energy
content, the carbon content (and supposedly thereby
emissions) is reduced by
%by
compared to what
it was in
. Emissions from all stages in fuel prepar-
ation are counted, including those from getting it out of
the ground whether it be oil or corn, transportation,
changes in land use, etc., as well as from burning the fuel
itself. It sounds good, but fuel is only part of the story.
What counts is what comes out of the tailpipe, or what
I call emissions per vehicle mile traveled (EVMT) which
depends on both the fuel and the ef
ciency with which it
is used.
Those for a LCFS argue that in transportation it is the
energy in a fuel that moves a vehicle and we should reduce
the greenhouse gas emissions associated with using that
energy counting all the emissions made in producing the
fuel. Counting everything in the fuel chain is good, but
