Cross-posted from the CA League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) blog, Groundswell. 

Nope, this isn’t a reference to another fad diet – at least not for people.  It’s our cars and trucks that need to go low-carb this time, meaning reduce their carbon emissions to help California address its air quality problems and limit its contributions to climate change.

When it comes to consumption options for vehicles, not all fuels are alike.  It’s just like me and my choices for food.  I choose to fuel myself with meat which requires more resources than being vegetarian.  But to decrease my carbon footprint, I limit my consumption of meat and make responsible consumer choices like buying meat that is organically raised and locally sourced.  It can be said that California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard is trying to do the same with our cars and trucks.

The Low-Carb Fuel Standard looks at the lifecycle of fuel, not just the pollution that results during its burning. As a result, the standard prevents the use of some of the dirtiest fuels like oil from the Tar Sands in Canada – a fuel source with an extraction method that is excessively polluting and carbon intensive.  The standard also requires oil companies to invest in alternative energy sources.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is in charge of enforcing the Low Carbon Fuel Standard to help the state achieve its global warming reduction goals.  CARB has moved forward thus far on its implementation, but now the fossil fuel industry has stepped in to fight the standard – they want to maintain the status quo of negligent fuel production.  The oil and gas companies are flooding CARB with industry-funded anti-environmental research and so-called experts seeking to derail this important protection. They don’t care about the impact these dirty fuels have on California’s families and the air we breathe.

Despite industry pressure, CARB is proposing changes to the low carbon fuel standard to ensure that California continues to use cleaner, low carbon fuel. These changes are a key step forward to improve our air and reduce pollution as we move towards clean and renewable energy sources.  

Just like I don’t have plans to stop eating meat, most Californians are not going to stop driving.  Yet we need to find a way to lessen the impact that their choice of motorized transportation has on our health and environment.  By regulating the quality and source of the fuel that we are burning, the state is taking a simple step to move us towards us a more carbon neutral future.

TAKE ACTION: Send a message to the California Air Resources Board before December 15^th, asking them to protect the low carbon fuel standard from attacks by oil companies and their lobbyists.  CARB is accepting comments on changes to the low carbon fuel standard until noon on December 15th.