Oregon's Clean Fuels Law Ignites More Political Wrangling

by Ian K. Kullgren (The Oregonian/Oregon Live) ... One of the law's biggest advocates threatened to join forces with opponents this week over proposed changes. A new environmental coalition launched ads attacking proposed ballot measures. Lawsuits are pending in state and federal court.

And both Republicans and the oil industry say they'll fight any new tax to fix roads as long as the law stays on the books.

The clean fuels program requires fuel distributors to decrease the carbon emissions of their fuels by 10 percent over 10 years. As things stand, they'll have to show their first decreases in 2016.

Legislators in the 2015 session gave the program a decade-long extension after heated floor debates, and Gov. Kate Brown signed it into law.

Kristen Grainger, Brown's communications director, said clean fuels and road fixes shouldn't be linked.

"Oregonians shouldn't have to choose between clean air and safe roads and bridges — Oregon needs both," she said in a statement. "Linking a repeal of our new clean fuels law to passage of a transportation package is a false choice."

Senate Minority leader Ted Ferrioli's office filed a public records request Sept. 10 seeking communications between (billionaire climate activist Tom) Steyer and Brown's staff. Friday, he called on Brown and legislative Democrats to disclose any ties to green energy interests that might profit from the program.

Meanwhile, clean fuels supporters saw hopes of building a West Coast Climate bloc dashed when Washington's clean fuels program bit the dust this year in a battle between Gov. Jay Inslee and the Washington Legislature.

A new coalition, Renew Oregon, is working to protect Oregon's clean fuels law from the same fate. The group launched a $48,000 TV ad campaign Sept. 12 that attacks lobbyists' "desperate" attempts to kill the program.

"We're taking the conversation into the public eye in all the ways oil lobbyists are coming after the clean fuels standard," communications director Brad Reed said.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on Sept. 15 announced a plan to change the way it measures carbon emissions from fuel, including biofuels such as ethanol produced from corn.

That matters because fuel distributors are expected to try to achieve the clean fuels targets by blending more biofuels into their gasoline.

The state's proposed new method would account for indirect land-use changes. For example, higher demand for biofuels in Oregon could lead to a rainforest in Brazil being replaced with crops for ethanol, said Cory-Ann Wind, an agency air-quality planner. Once that's factored in, fuel emissions rise by about 10 percent.

The Renewable Fuels Association blasted the new method. Geoff Cooper, the group's senior vice president, said if biofuels are suddenly seen as producing higher emissions, oil distributors will face a tougher time hitting their targets by adjusting blends.

"This indirect land-use stuff is just kind of hokey," Cooper said. "You can't measure it, and there's no evidence that it's occurring."

A department committee plans to hold a public hearing on the change Oct. 19. If the agency ultimately adopts the change, Cooper said, his group will join the oil industry in fighting to repeal the clean fuels program. READ MORE (includes VIDEO of Renew Oregon ad) and MORE (Ethanol Producer Magazine) WATCH VIDEO

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen said that today’s DEQ proposal would have the effect of creating an inconsistent and unfair methodology for estimating the carbon intensity of competing fuel options under the CFP. Specifically, DEQ’s proposal would penalize certain biofuels for theoretical indirect emissions, while assuming that no other fuels induce any indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at all. DEQ proposed to integrate the flawed ILUC analysis conducted by the California Air Resources Board, despite the fact that recent analyses have shown that the land use changes predicted by CARB’s computer models have not occurred in the real world. DEQ also flatly ignored the results of new land use modeling approaches, including recently published data from the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

“Oregon DEQ really fumbles the ball with this proposal,” said Dinneen. “The Oregon CFP previously enjoyed broad-based support from the biofuels and ag industries because the CI impacts of all fuels were being evaluated fairly and consistently. But the program is headed off the rails now that DEQ is planning to simply regurgitate CARB’s faulty and biased ILUC penalties, while pretending that other fuels don’t have indirect GHG effects. Regrettably, Oregon’s proposal puts politics ahead of science, a problem that has plagued the California program, harming consumers by limiting choice at the pump. The U.S. ethanol industry will continue to support performance-based low carbon fuel programs that are grounded in the principles of fairness, sound science, and consistent analytical boundaries. Unfortunately, Oregon’s proposal doesn’t meet any of those criteria.”