California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard was announced on January 18th, 2007, through Executive Order S-1-07. The LCFS creates a state-wide goal of reducing the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuel by 10% by 2020 and applies to all fuel providers, including refiners, blenders, producers and importers. 

Since early 2007, a team of researchers from UC Davis and UC Berkeley have been collaborating on a joint study of the LCFS. The University of California has prepared a two-phase study to assess both the low-carbon fuels options that might be used to meet the LCFS and to examine the specific policy issues to meet this goal (see Part I study and Part II study). The University of California Report on Low Carbon Fuel Standard for California (UC Report) identified several major areas of incompleteness and uncertainty including: life cycle emission factors, land use, climate impacts of emission, treatment of market-mediated effects, and limited data quality.

To view an extensive collection of the UC work prior to September 2007, as well as links to other resources related to the LCFS, please go to

This project will provide the ARB Stationary Source Division technical and advisory support in the effort to develop and implement California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard. It is divided into 1) three advisory support tasks to support CARB in response to questions and comments in the regulatory process, and, 2) a set of technical research areas for which research papers will be developed over the course of this two-year project. The Task Leads are the CARB points of contact for questions, and they should coordinate with Co-Investigators and researchers to respond to queries. The Technical Leads are responsible for all the work and research papers in their area – they are the point of contact for CARB and are responsible for seeing that the research papers being developed receive sufficient internal review. All task and project area leads are responsible for summarizing activities during monthly meetings.

Workshops and Meetings:

5th Annual Forum of the California Biomass Collaborative: Joint Forum on Bioenergy Sustainability and Lifecycle Analysis, May 28-30, 2008. Sacramento, CA.

Highlights:

UC Researchers

• Principles of Sustainability, Dan Kammen, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley

• Biomass Energy and Agricultural Sustainability, Steve Kaffka, California Biomass Collaborative

• Lifecycle Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Biofuels, Mark Delucchi (by Alissa Kendall), UC Davis

• Technological, Climate Change, and Sustainability Aspects of Future Transportation Fuels, Sabrina Spatari, UC Berkeley

• The Role of LCA in Characterizing Sustainability, Sonia Yeh, UC Davis

Other Important Presentations

• Sustainability and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Bob Fletcher, California Air Resources Board

• Modeling Land Use Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Performance Thresholds, Robert Larson, US EPA-National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Lab

• The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels: Ensuring that Biofuels Deliver on their Promise of Sustainability, Charlotte Opal, Roundtable on Sustainable Bioenergy

  British Columbia: Climate Change and Energy Policy, Paul Wieringa, B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources

Round Table Discussion on Modeling Land Use Change Impacts of Future Transportation Fuels, March 17, 2008. University of California, Davis, CA.

As part of UC’s effort to provide the ARB Stationary Source Division technical and advisory support in the effort to develop and implement California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis and the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at University of California, Berkeley organized an one-day workshop to discuss the technical and policy challenges of the land use change impacts of future transportation fuels.

Our goal of the meeting is to have an open discussion on modeling land use changes of future transportation fuels, and invite different government agencies to share information about their work. The UC team also presented our research, plans and progress for feedbacks and comments.

- Agenda

- Presentation: Alex Farrell, “Policy and analytic contexts of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard" (the version presented at the meeting was not available. A similar version to this presentation can be found here).

- Hertel and Tyner, “Analysis of Indirect Land Use Impacts of Biofuel Programs"

- Delucchi, “Incorporating price effect on LCA” “Reversion of land use and amortization of emissions”

Viewpoints/Presentations:

• Daniel Sperlling (6/3/08) "Overview Presentation on LCFS" National Conference on Low Carbon Fuel Standards for Canada, June 3-4 2008, Toronto.
• Sonia Yeh (6/3/08) "Implementing California’s LCFS: Technical and Policy Challenges" National Conference on Low Carbon Fuel Standards for Canada, June 3-4 2008, Toronto.
• Mike O'Hare (6/3/08) "Indirect Land Use Change and its Implications for Biofuels" National Conference on Low Carbon Fuel Standards for Canada, June 3-4 2008, Toronto.
• Sonia Yeh (6/5/08) "LCFS: Policy and Political Challenges," (PDF-2.1mb)
  
• Nathan Parker (5/9/08) "Compliance Pathways for Meeting the Low Carbon Fuel Standard in California - Biofuel Supply Curves" (PDF-3.5mb)
  
• Land Use Impacts analysis by UC Berkeley (January 17, 2008): Memorandum: RE: Greenhouse Gases Emissions from Indirect Land Use Change (PDF-43k). Land Use Change Calculation spreadsheet (XLS-114k)
• Mike O'Hare (January 17, 2008) "Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Indirect Land Use Change"  (PDF-278k),
• Alex Farrell (6/11/2007) on Onpoint discussed nationwide implementation of Calif. fuels plan
• Daniel Sperling (5/18/2007) “Key Policy Issues and Proposed Approaches,” International Symposium on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
• Alex Farrell (5/18/2007) “Measuring and Tracking Greenhouse Gas,” International Symposium on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
• Dr. Chris Knittel (5/09/07) on transportation market failures
• Dr. Bryan Jenkins (3/14/07) on biofuels and bioenergy
• Dr. Mark Delucchi (2/02/07) on LCA of GHG emissions from biofuels
• Dr. Bryan Jenkins on Strategic Development of Bioenergy in the Western States. Task 3: Spatial Analysis and Supply Curve Development.
  

Papers and Reports:

Holland, Stephen P., Knittel, Christopher R. and Hughes, Jonathan E., "Greenhouse Gas Reductions Under Low Carbon Fuel Standards?" (May 18, 2007). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=987759

California Biomass Collaborative, "A Preliminary Roadmap for Biomass Development in California"

Delucchi, Mark A. (2008) A Conceptual Framework for Estimating Bioenerg-Related Land-Use Change and Its Impact over Time . Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-07-31

Planning for the Sustainable Development of Biomass in California (.doc)

Supplemental Materials:

• Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis Incorporating the Effect of Price Changes on CO2-Equivalent Emissions from Alternative Fuel Lifecycles: Scoping the Issues DRAFT Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-05-19, October 2005, Delucchi, Mark.

The VISION-CA Model

A modified version of the Argonne VISION model was used to develop the scenarios presented in Part I of the UC LCFS study. To download a version of the VISION-CA model, visit the VISION-CA website.
The VISION-CA model (now called VISION-CI, which standards for Carbon Intensity) is continued to be updated to include the emissions and fuel consumptions from heavy duty vehicles, and reflect proposed changes in the Average Fuel Carbon Intensity (AFCI) calculations.


ITS Resources Related to the LCFS

Documentation for the Lifecycle Emissions Model (LEM) of alternative fuels for vehicles (Dr. Mark Delucchi)

Additional Assessments of Alternative Fuels by Dr. Delucchi.

Additional ITS publications on specific alternative fuel issues.

California Air Resources Board's LCFS Website