Sustainability Issues in Biomass Feedstock Production: A Policy Perspective - Engineering and Science of Biomass Feedstock Production and Provision - page 233

is in the process of developing concurrent practice-based sustainability standards to
accompany the LCFS' carbon foot printing. ARB has developed a set of draft
metrics (e.g., water, soil, biodiversity, and labor/employment) in consultation with a
sustainability workgroup of stakeholders and other experts [ 34 ]. Similar forestry
sustainability standards began through the Interagency Forestry Working Group but
appeared to be stalled [ 35 ]. 1
Plaintiffs have challenged the constitutionality of the LCFS' carbon footprinting
through LCA [ 36 ]. Specifi cally, a group of farmers and ethanol interests from the
US Midwest claim that the Dormant Commerce Clause of the US Constitution pro-
hibits California from imposing rules that substantially affect interstate commerce.
These include the GHG penalties that Midwestern corn ethanol receive because of
transportation emissions associated with logistics of shipping ethanol from the
Midwest to California, and the use of high GHG intensity coal-fi red electricity that
is prevalent in the Midwest. While triumphant at the district court level, the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals held the regulation valid in September 2013. Citation:
Rocky Mountain Farmer's Union v. Corey, No. 12-15131 (Sept. 18, 2013).
In addition to ARB's LCFS efforts, the California Energy Commission (CEC)
applies sustainability criteria to make green subsidies for alternative and renewable
fuels and technologies [ 37 ]. For purpose-grown energy crops, these include “devel-
opment and implementation of a sustainability best management practices plan
developed by institutions such as the University of California at Davis,” land use
that does not disrupt food cropping, and crop selection that fi ts climate, water, and
natural resource constraints [ 38 ]. On the other hand, renewable energy credits
(RECs) generated through its Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) lack concrete
defi nitions of “renewability” except as broadly defi ned through statute by source
(e.g., biomass) and that which does not “cause or contribute to any violation of a
California environmental quality standard or requirement” [ 39 ]. While it remains
unclear how CEC will verify environmental compliance, presumably Cap-and-
Trade regulations would cross-apply. CEC did recently issue a study of the lifecycle
effects of certain energy systems [ 40 ]. Controversy surrounding the defi nition of
“renewability” of RES feedstocks has emerged in other states such as North
Carolina, where environmentalists have appealed the NC Utilities Commission's
order, allowing whole trees to be combusted for electricity generation [ 41 ].
California's Cap-and-Trade regulation exempts biomass-based fuels from carbon
accounting, but entities must still report GHG emissions from biomass under the
mandatory reporting regulation [ 42 ]. In December 2011, ARB fi nalized additional
reporting requirement that forest-derived biomass demonstrate compliance with
environmental and forestry laws [ 33 ]. For international sourcing, California contin-
ues to work, through the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF), on the
integration of sustainability mechanisms such as Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) into the Cap-and-Trade program [ 43 ].
1 CAT Forest Group/Inter-Agency Forest Working Group , CAL. CLIMATE CHANGE PORTAL,
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/forestry/index.html (last modifi ed Jan. 12, 2010).