CEA’s recent year in review offered a long list of achievements in public policy, technology and public opinion that all helped advance our goals of fostering a strong domestic energy industry and economy.
We also noted that there was a lot more work to be done.
Indeed, word came down on New Year’s Eve that 11 states had committed to following California’s lead in adopting a Low Carbon Fuel Standard, essentially a wildly inaccurate measure of the carbon footprint left by various fuels. We’ve noted before that such standards are less likely to reduce emissions and more likely to increase imports of Middle East crude oil. Yet, because the standard has a nice ring to it and may appear to offer the sort of simple solutions people crave, it is catching on quite quickly.
It is heartening to see pockets of opposition, such as this one out of Pennsylvania that notes that the premise of carbon accounting on which the policy is based is, at best, challenging to calculate, and at worst, just like we said, inaccurate.
But from where we stand now, too many lawmakers are taking the sound byte over the hard science and signing on to what could be a devastating policy for the future of domestic energy and our dependence on foreign resources.
As we outline our goals for the New Year, educating lawmakers, businesses and the general public about this not-so-low carbon standard must be a top priority. The future of many domestic energy suppliers and refiners will be riding on the outcome.
