State of California to rank fuels’ full-cycle greenhouse gas emissions
16th May 2007

On Friday 18 May at a symposium to be attended by EU officials, California’s state government will scientists will reveal a formula for calculating the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from the full cycle of fuels - from extraction and harvesting to combustion, David Crane, an advisor to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told media this week. No other government has yet instituted such rankings for conventional and alternative road fuels.

The rankings will calculate emissions of inputs used to make the fuels, such as the fertilizer and diesel used to grow and harvest corn-based ethanol from the US Midwest, or the diesel and natural gas burned to dig and melt crude from Canadian oil sands.

The launch of emissions rankings for transport fuels follows California’s planned legislation in January to reduce the carbon content from fuel by 10% by 2020, and coincides with this week’s executive order from the White House requiring federal U.S. departments and agencies to co-operate in forming new CAFÉ fuel economy and vehicle CO2 emissions limits.

It may be that from 2010 businesses that sell low carbon fuels could earn credits they would sell to oil companies that can't meet the new Californian rules, Mr. Crane said, adding that while locally-produced biofuels might be lower in overall carbon content than Mid-West-produced maize ethanol or imported mineral oil, future cellulosic biofuels or natural gas could win out.

The Californian Environmental Protection Agency believes the ranking formula has the potential to become an international standard for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from different fuels.