(Oil Price) – California authorities are about to make gasoline even more expensive for local drivers following a further tightening of emission rules, scheduled to be voted on this week.
The vote would amend the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a program that began back in 2011 with the aim of incentivizing fuel producers to make lower-emission products by creating a carbon credit marketplace worth some $2 billion.
However, the cleaner fuels have turned out to be more expensive, eventually sparking outrage among Californians who already struggle with the highest gasoline prices in the country. Republicans in the state Legislature have called for a delay in the standards revision citing the higher prices, and their fellow party members in the House of Representatives have issued their own call for a delay.
Consumers are not sitting idle, either. More than a hundred wrote to the California Air Resources Board—the authority set to vote on the revision—to complain that the revision would make fuels more expensive, CalMatters reported in late October. Some have also criticized the CARB for not ensuring a transparent process leading to the vote, set to take place this Friday.
The Detroit News reports that as a result of the fuel standards revision, gas prices in California could swell by another $0.47 per gallon from 2025. Others cite $0.65 in additional fuel cost should the California Air Resources Board approve the revision. That revision is in fact a revision of fuel emission reduction targets. The proposal is to raise the target for fuels’ carbon intensity cuts from 20% to 30% by 2030 and further to 90% by 2045.
“Affordability is a guiding consideration in all our rulemaking,” the executive officer of the state regulator, Steven Cliff, recently told the media. “We strive to balance affordability with other considerations, such as protecting public health and meeting legislative mandates.”
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
