NBB comments on California standard

Biodiesel Magazine obtained a statement from the National Biodiesel Board regarding the California Air Resources Board's recent ruling on a low carbon fuels standard and indirect land use change. The statement reads:

The National Biodiesel Board has appreciated the opportunity to work with CARB on this difficult but worthwhile issue of replacing fossil fuels with low carbon renewable fuels.

Today, Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that can immediately and seamlessly transition a diesel fleet to a cleaner-burning fuel program, and the National Biodiesel Board supports efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. In fact, the nearly 700 million gallons of biodiesel produced in the United States last year reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 11.28 billion pounds, the equivalent of removing 980,000 vehicles from America's roadways.

Moving forward, biodiesel will continue to reduce regulated emissions and greenhouse gas emission and the National Biodiesel Board will continue to work with CARB on the implementation schedule for diesel and the lifecycle assessment for biodiesel.

NBB remains hopeful that CARB staff will continue to work collaboratively on potentially difficult issues like indirect lifecycle greenhouse gas impacts.

Specifically, among other things, NBB will continue to urge CARB to:

• take time with regard to work on indirect land use change modeling and defer any decisions until the science is accurately and fully developed;

• include historical trends predicting increased crop yields on existing acres;

• and be exceptionally thoughtful with regard to managing the peer review process.

Biodiesel is a cleaner burning, advanced alternative fuel and is among the most powerful tools to fight carbon emission, chipping away at the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions - fossil fuels. Biodiesel has a 78 percent life cycle carbon reduction compared to petroleum according to the USDA/DOE.

Biodiesel's environmental benefits are wide spread. The fuel is nontoxic and biodegradable. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed Tier I and Tier II health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. It is domestically produced from a range of readily available products like soybean and other plant oils, animal fats, recycled restaurant grease, and waste grease. In addition, work continues on new renewable fuel sources, including algae, to bolster what is already the most diversified fuel on the planet.