The California Air Resources Board voted Friday night to strengthen the low-carbon fuel standard, its hot-button emissions trading program for transportation fuels.
The 12-2 vote came after a contentious 12-hour hearing where board members — a mix of legislative and gubernatorial appointees — sparred over the program’s potential to raise gas prices as well as its contested environmental bona fides.
The rare split vote reflected deep tensions over the first-in-the-nation, 13-year-old program, which incentivizes the development of lower-carbon fuels by creating a market around them.
The program funds electric vehicle charging stations and rebates for the vehicles themselves, but also funds more-controversial fuels like biofuels and dairy biogas, which environmentalists have argued pollute the air and water, drive deforestation, and divert funds from electrification.
