California is implementing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) for transportation fuels (i.e., gasoline and diesel). According the the Washington Policy Blog (which is about Washington State, not D.C.), Governor Gregoire wants to put the same standard in place in Washington State. Only problem is, there is no such thing as a "low carbon fuel." The CO2 emitted per gallon of gasoline is constant (20 pounds according to the federal government's website).
So what is the purpose of the LCFS? According to the Washington Policy Blog, it's not about low carbon fuels, but about making fuels (that is, the gasoline you need for you car) expensive and hard to find:
Peel back the layers of the LCFS onion, and it becomes clear that it’s a policy designed not to make the fuels in our tank any better or more efficient than they are today – but to make those fuels harder to find and more expensive to purchase. Achieve those two things, LCFS supporters candidly admit, and you reduce the demand for energy by making it so expensive that folks will learn to live without it. Of course, that’s not exactly how those supporters are selling it the public. But once you come to terms with how an LCFS works, it’s tough not to arrive at precisely that conclusion.
In other words, it's a gas tax in disguise (and to fight global warming environmentalists say we need a gas tax). And will make it harder for you to buy gasoline. Yes, that will reduce the demand for gasoline and thus reduce carbon emission. But politicians should at least be honest in their goals and not sneak in a gas tax and gas rationing in the name of a Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
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