Clinton does not support national LCFS

OREANDA-NEWS. August 05, 2016.  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton does not support spreading California's Low-Carbon Fuel Standard nationwide, the campaign has confirmed.

The campaign met with a member of the California Air Resources Board to discuss the state-level fuels regulation and national biofuel blending mandates called the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

But Clinton was not exploring replacing one system with another, a spokesman said.

"While we have engaged a wide range of stakeholders and exports throughout the campaign on biofuels and other issues, we do not support replacing the RFS with a national low-carbon fuel standard," spokesman Tyrone Gayle said.

The campaign did not respond to whether the candidate could have instead looked to borrow potential RFS changes from the program.

Refiners rarely sing praises of California's regulatory system but have linked the state program to RFS in a recent surge of criticism for the national program. US independent refiners led by Valero have pushed the Environmental Protection Agency to make fuel blenders, rather than refiners and importers, directly responsible for ensuring rising volumes of biofuels enter the US fuel supply each year.

Such a system would be similar to how California enforces LCFS.