Comment Log Display

Dear California Air Resources Board,

Your administration and CARB need to rethink the direction being
taken regarding the low carbon fuel standard. We must consider the
known scientific facts today, following years of study, rather than
what was considered requisite back in the days when the low carbon
fuels standard was first adopted. We simply know much more now
about how that standard has directed investment and adversely
affected our climate goals.

The proposed amendments to California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard
fail as good climate policy. It takes steps backward on
California's vaunted leadership on climate policy. Vast subsidies
for combustion fuels should not remain among any forward-thinking
climate policies for California. This program is critical, and your
administration is going in the wrong direction. 

Your budget proposes significant delays and cuts of hundreds of
millions of dollars to vital zero-emission transportation programs,
which makes it all the more urgent to use the Low Carbon Fuel
Standard to more fully support zero-emissions transportation.
Historically, California has thrown good money after bad, and
devoted 80% of the LCFS's $3 to 4 billion each and every year to
combustion technology. It would be might unwise to continue leave
these funds on the climate sidelines. We must, instead make them a
critical tool for transitioning to our hoped-for zero-emissions
future. 

The world has changed a lot since the implementation of the LCFS in
2009. Unlike the 2000s, we have a north star goal for our climate
and the air we breathe: zero emissions transportation.  Continuing
to invest the billions in revenue from the LCFS into harmful and
polluting biofuels that end up combusted, instead of electric
vehicles powered by clean energy, hampers our efforts to fight the
climate crisis while enriching oil companies and industrial
agriculture. 

I urge you to correct your course and modernize the program by
reflecting your consensus that the only way to meet air quality
standards is through eliminating combustion altogether, not piling
on billions of dollars in lavish incentives for combustion each and
every year. By focusing on real air pollution solutions, you could
add a clean air multiplier to the credits system, especially for
public fleets that transport many people at once, would deliver
major benefits for California's air quality and throw a lifeline to
cash-strapped transit agencies that low-income Californians depend
on for mobility. 

California cannot meet our clean air and climate goals without
harnessing the power of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and
overhauling this multibillion-dollar program. Please act
expeditiously to reform the program to achieve our state's
ambitious goals.

Sincerely,
Christopher Hamilton
1316 Albina Ave  Albany, CA 94706-2506