Environmental Organizations See Progress Toward Cleaner Fuel Future in New Agreement Signed by Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States
For Immediate Release
Contacts:
Paul Burns, VPIRG, 802-793-1985
Jeremy McDiarmid, ENE (Environment Northeast), 617-429-0677
Sue Reid, Conservation Law Foundation, 617-669-2182
On Dec. 30, eleven Northeast and mid-Atlantic states took another step toward reducing the region’s dangerous dependence on oil and fostering the growth of clean fuel alternatives when their governors signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop a mandatory, multi-state Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
The LCFS is a market-based, technology-neutral policy requiring gradual reductions in the carbon content of fuel. An LCFS will promote a regional market for cleaner alternative fuels, delivering greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, local economic development, and technological innovation. California was the first state to adopt an LCFS in April 2009, requiring all distributors of transportation fuels to achieve 10% lower carbon intensity by 2020.
“An LCFS is a pivotal tool to reduce global warming pollution from cars and trucks and yet again provides a model from the Northeast for the federal government to follow,” said Jeremy McDiarmid, Staff Attorney at ENE (Environment Northeast). McDiarmid noted that it was ten of these same eleven states that implemented the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) last year, the first mandatory cap and trade energy emissions reduction program in the country and now an important model for federal climate legislation under development.
Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), Environment America, NRDC, PennFuture and ENE have been actively promoting the development of the LCFS in the Northeast.
“Clean alternative fuels have the potential to be an economic engine in the Northeast while addressing the threat of climate change,” said CLF Senior Attorney Sue Reid. “We need to adopt policies such as the LCFS that discourage high carbon fuels like tar sands and build markets for new, cleaner fuels, with meaningful choices for consumers. We are encouraged by the governors’ commitment to move forward,” Reid added.
“The states are now well-positioned to address this key component of global warming pollution,” noted Nathanael Greene, Director of Renewable Energy Policy for NRDC. “We anticipate that this initiative will help speed the adoption of clean fuel alternatives such as electric vehicles, advanced biofuels and compressed natural gas, to name a few, producing significant reductions in carbon emissions from vehicle use throughout the region.”
“We’re counting on Vermont officials to stand strong against special interests who are intent on blocking an effective program,” said Paul Burns, Executive Director of VPIRG. “VPIRG will be working with agency staff over the course of the next year to develop a program that sets a firm target for reducing the carbon intensity of fuels 10% by 2020. The program should also include provisions that account for the life-cycle greenhouse gas impacts of fuels.”
ENE, CLF, Environment America and other environmental advocacy organizations have joined other stakeholders in urging the governors to move with greater urgency, developing a program framework by the end of 2010 and committing to a 10% reduction in the carbon intensity of fuels. While the MOU stops short of laying out a program framework with specific targets, the groups see the MOU as a step forward, reaffirming and elevating the states’ commitment to implement a regional LCFS.
