USA, California
9% alternative fuels by 2012
On Wednesday, the California Energy Commission voted to adopt a new plan for increasing the use of alternative fuels in that state. The California Alternative Fuel Plan satisfies a legislative mandate that the CEC and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) develop a plan for increasing alternative fuel use. California has established an aggressive goal of increasing the use of alternative fuel to 20 percent of on-road fuel use by 2020 and 30 percent by 2030.
The CEC specifically has recommended that the Governor set targets on a gasoline gallon equivalent basis for use of 10 different alternative motor fuels in the on-road and off-road sectors. CEC has indicated that alternative fuels should represent an increasingly larger share of transportation motor fuels, 9 percent by 2012, 11 percent by 2017 and 26 percent by 2022.
The Alternative Fuels Plan includes strategies and actions that California must take in order to achieve those aggressive targets. Earlier this month, NGVAmerica filed comments with the commission in favor of the draft plan. One of the key findings in the plan is the potential that natural gas use could replace up to 36 percent of freight and off-road fuel use by 2050. The plan highlights the many things that must take place in order for alternative fuel use to increase. As such, the plan does not actually put into place any new requirements, but rather calls attention to regulatory and legislative actions that must occur in the coming years.
Part of what is recommended in the report already is taking place in California. Just last month, Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation (AB 118) that provides up to $210 million per year in funding to support alternative fuel and clean air initiatives. The commission plan highlights the need for a dedicated source of funding for alternative fuel initiatives. It also highlights the need (with which we strongly agree) for federal government to continue to provide incentives for alternative fuels and to step up its efforts to help alternative fuel initiatives.
The approved plan is available on CEC’s website: http://www.energy.ca.gov/ab1007/. For more information, contact CNGVC’s Mike Eaves at meaves@cngvc.org.
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