This was written by staff at the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters. It was republished by The Mendocino Voice in partnership with CalMatters to bring relevant nonpartisan news to Mendocino County readers. Learn more about CalMatters here.
In one of its most controversial decisions, California’s air board voted tonight to revamp a key climate change program, which could increase gas prices in a state already facing some of the nation’s steepest costs at the pump.
The California Air Resources Board approved major changes to its Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a program aimed at encouraging use of cleaner transportation fuels with financial incentives as the state moves toward phasing out gasoline and diesel.
The board’s 12-2 vote tonight followed about seven hours of comments from more than 100 people and four hours of discussion by board members at its meeting, held in Riverside.
State Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican from Palmdale, told the board during public comments that the possible impact on gas prices will harm working class Californians.
“We’re the hard working men and women here in the state of California. We build homes, we fix roads, and we serve you when you dine out,” Lackey said. “To do this, we must drive hours each day to work to put food on the table for our families. This measure before you will cause us financial pain.”
At the heart of the controversy is the question: How do you wean Californians off gasoline and diesel — which is critical for cleaning the state’s dirty air and reducing its role in the climate crisis — without substantially raising the cost to consumers?
Many air board members referred to an urgency to push for cleaner fuels in California because of the outcome of the Tuesday election, which gave Donald Trump, who has denied the existence of climate change and targeted California environmental programs, the presidency and Republicans control of the U.S. Senate.
The new rule’s potential effects on California fuel prices are largely unknown. The air board said today that oil companies typically already pass 8 to 10 cents per gallon of costs on to consumers because of the state’s fuel standard.
The board also passed a resolution tonight requiring an annual review of the rule’s impact on gas prices. If the changes “ultimately accelerate cost burdens on California consumers,” the board said in the resolution that it will consider amending them.
Eric Guerra, a Sacramento city council member who was appointed to the air board by Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the air board must prioritize public health but that support of working families is equally important, so he called for frequent monitoring of the possible impact on gas prices.
Concerns about gas prices have fueled the debate surrounding the board’s proposal since its release last December. But much of the agency’s revamp of its fuel rules focuses on intricate disputes among environmentalists, oil companies, dairy farms that use manure to produce fuels, biofuel companies and other low-carbon fuel providers.
This article first appeared in CalMatters here.
Un-elected bureaucrats making rules that make fuel/driving more expensive and justifying it by calling climate change a “crisis” or “emergency”. Oh and they just want you to stop driving gas/diesel vehicles. Hopefully this will improve air quality in urban areas, I don’t expect to notice a difference in the rural areas.