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Biofuels groups react to California decision

The California Air Resources Board passed their low-carbon fuel standard which will require fuel manufacturers to cut the so-called carbon intensity of fuels sold in the state10 percent by 2020. Manufacturers can meet the standard by selling a mix of fuels, selling all low-carbon fuels or using credits that can be both bought and earned from the state if they exceed the limitations. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the regulation.
The co-chairman ofGrowth Energy, General Wesley Clark, says he’s disappointed with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adoption of a low carbon fuel standard that he says unfairly penalizes biofuels compared to other fuels. Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dineen says the standard sets a dangerousprecedent, unfairly penalizing ethanol. Dineen says, “What's frustrating to all of us in the ethanol industry is that the (CARB) board still went ahead and approved a program that had at its basis some really ridiculous indirect land use numbers. The board turned their back on reams ofdata the ethanol industry and other scientists had submitted that were calling into question that they were making about corn yields and about distillers feeds and about a number of other issues that impact significantly the land use implications of biofuels.”

Corn-based ethanol supporters oppose the measure because it includes clearing land to grow corn as part of the carbon intensity formula. It does not use that evaluation for other fuels and as a result, corn-based ethanol ends up with a higher carbon intensity level than gasoline made in California.Retired General Wesley Clark, now with Growth Energy said then the board should consider the Iraq war as an indirect effect of petroleum.

The California Air Resources Board says it will review the indirect land-use effects of various fuels in 2011.

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