Museum of Science, Boston

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August 08, 2007

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Transportation experts from U.C. Berkeley and Davis have released details of California's new Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Effective January 2010, the new standard is designed to cut carbon emissions at least 10 percent by 2020. It will require transportation fuel providers to track the entire life cycle of their product's emissions, including extraction, production, transport, storage, and use. In order to lower net emissions, these companies will increase efficiency, blend biofuel , and buy emission credits from alternative energy producers who use solar, wind, nuclear, or carbon trapping methods.

British Columbia, Ontario, and 12 states comprising 40 percent of the U.S. population have also embraced California's plan, and the European Union has adopted similar measures. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has yet to approve the plan.