California Fuel Move Angers Ethanol Makers

Ethanol producers reacted with dismay to California’s approval of the nation’s first low-carbon fuel standard, which will require the state’s mix of fuels to be 10 percent lower in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. In a 9-1 vote late Thursday, the state’s Air Resources Board approved the measure. “The drive to force the market toward greater use of alternative fuels will be a boon to the state’s economy and public health — it reduces air pollution, creates new jobs and continues California’s leadership in the fight against global warming,” said the California board’s chairwoman, Mary D. Nichols, in a statement. But the ethanol industry is concerned that the regulations give a poor emissions score to their corn-based product, in some cases ranking it as a bigger emitter than petroleum. “This was a poor decision, based on shaky science, not only for California, but for the nation,” General Wesley Clark, who is a co-chairman of the pro-ethanol group Growth Energy, said in a statement...NYTimes