Low Carbon Fuel Standard laws like HB41 primarily prop up biofuels backed by Big Ag and Big Oil

We know that some environmental organizations support Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) policies like the one HB41 sets up, but this policy has been in place in California for over a decade and the flaws in this approach to transportation emissions reductions are only becoming clearer. In fact this fascinating report released by Food and Water Watch in January concludes that rather than serving its intended purpose, the California LCFS has become a lucrative pollution ponzi scheme that is incentivizing factory farm biogas projects across the country through deals with Big Ag and oil companies like Shell, Chevron and BP.

In California more than 80% of the LCFS credits in 2022 came from ethanol, biodiesel and the like.

These biofuels, aka "renewable gas" or "biogas", like methane from industrial scale dairy farms and soybean oil from farmers in the Amazon, have the potential for significant unintended climate impacts like deforestation that are extremely hard to measure, and some researchers conclude the beneficial climate impacts of these credits for biofuels are overvalued by more than 50%.

Here in New Mexico the bill is also being promoted by the very same actors who have been desperately pushing for the creation of a fossil fueled hydrogen industry in the state, and the newest version of this bill specifically calls for a credit market that includes fossil fueled hydrogen and the carbon capture and storage methods that this false climate solution depends on.

Finally, for any carbon trading scheme to be effective, credits must be based on a lifecycle assessment that ensures emissions reductions are permanent, additional, verifiable, enforceable and real reductions. The sad fact is that the vast majority of carbon credits are none of the above, and HB41 includes no assurances and no proven verification methods to make sure a Low Carbon Fuel Standard in New Mexico will be any better than the flawed model in California.

Please join us in calling on Senate Conservation to VOTE NO on HB41, the Clean Fuel Standards Act. Reductions in transportation emissions are better addressed through direct climate impact reduction mandates, incentives for EV's and EV infrastructure, and investment in public transportation, railways and livable cities.