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California study of land use theories underway
An expert workgroup created by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) held its first meeting last week. That group is charged with refining and improving CARB’s controversial land use and indirect effect analysis of transportation fuels.
California recently implemented a low carbon fuels standard which included indirect land use change requirements. That law, which critics say effectively blocks domestically-produced ethanol from being used in the state, is under legal challenge.
The expert workgroup will evaluate factors that might impact the land use values of biofuels, such as agricultural yield improvements, co-products such as distillers grains, and food price elasticity . The workgroup must submit its recommendations to the CARB board by January 1st of 2011.
Participating in that workgroup is Mark Stowers, senior vice president of science and technology for POET, the nation’s largest ethanol producer. Stowers says California’s low carbon fuels standard is an important piece of energy policy—too important to rely on theories or unproven models such as indirect land use change.
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