Opinion: New York’s So-Called ‘Clean Fuel Standard’ Is Anything But

Many New Yorkers, like Californians, are no strangers to the sight of smog in their skies. We inhale it in the air we breathe and smell it on the streets we walk on—but some suffer from its worst impacts more than others, especially in BIPOC and low-income communities.
In 2009, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) famously tackled the state’s extensive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by implementing their marquee program, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). However, what initially promised to decarbonize transportation and cut down on GHGs instead became a handout for venture capitalists, big oil, big agriculture and big gas by pouring the majority of its $4 billion budget into polluting biofuels.
It comes as no surprise then that the price for this shift was paid for by low- and moderate-income Californians. Now, an iteration of California’s LCFS is being proposed in New York as the Clean Fuel Standard (CFS), threatening to derail the just transition and equity provisions ensured by New York’s Climate Act.

Read the full article by our Executive Director Stephan Edel here.