Legislation pending in the Illinois legislature aims to create a clean transportation standard (CTS) that would require a 25% reduction in in the lifecycle carbon intensity (CI) of ground transportation fuels within a 10-year period. 

The bill, SB 0041, was introduced in January and has since been referred to the Senate Assignments Committee and the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee. 

The proposed CTS would take the form of a credit marketplace monitored by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Airline, rail, ocean-going and military fuel would be exempt from the program. 

The legislation directs state agencies to propose and adopt rules to establish the CTS within 24 months of the bill being signed into law. The program would initially required a 25% CI reduction over 10 years when compared to a 2019 baseline. Further reductions would be required over the following decade.

In calculating CI reductions, the program would recognize farm emissions reductions that contributed to the reduced CI of fuels by allowing credit generators to use individualized farm-level CI scoring for approved sustainable agricultural practices and requiring the state agencies to use the U.S. Department of Energy GREET models’ feedstock carbon intercity calculator to determine individualized farm-level CI scoring. 

The bill also includes provisions implementing a price cap on compliance credits designed to contain costs if fuel supply forecasts determine that not enough credits would be available. The credit price cap would be adjusted annually for inflation. 

A full copy of the bill is available on the Illinois legislature website.