From action.RAN.org

Stop Big Agribusiness from hijacking climate legislation!

sign up to join us in Sacramento or come to the art build,

Join us on April 23rd in Sacramento for the Low Carbon Fuel Standard public hearing (and pre-action preparatory art build at the RAN office in SF April 14th)

What’s Going On:

Have you heard of the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)? If you haven’t, you’re certainly not alone. And, if you have, it’s possible that you’ve heard lot’s of information—much of it very difficult to sort through.

CARB has been working to develop a draft Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation which is intended to address cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels, and thus make a critical contribution to the state’s plan to meet its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goals under AB 32. This legislation will likely set a national precedent, so it’s essential that we are vigilant to ensure that tough rules are developed to hold the right industries accountable and not open the door to a host of other problems.

Agrofuels (industrial biofuels)—which are neither low-carbon, nor renewable—are being ushered into the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, supposedly as a way to help reduce our state’s carbon intensity from transportation fuels.

What's Wrong with Agrofuels?

Agrofuels are naaaasty. People are already being displaced by big agribusiness to grow crops for fuel. And, biofuels won’t get us off of fossil fuels anyway. Replacing just 10 percent of world demand for diesel for road transport with biodiesel would require 75 percent of the world’s existing soy, oil palm and rapeseed crops. Even current government mandates for these so-called renewable fuels will create enough demand for biofuels to cause food shortages and human rights and environmental catastrophes around the world.

What we want:

We need your help to tell the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that we want real solutions, just solutions, and clean solutions. This legislation should put the full burden for reducing our carbon emissions from transportation on the fossil fuel industry—where it belongs. Unfortunately, however, the LCFS opens up the door to another false solution—agrofuels. This will only benefit the multi-billion dollar agribusiness industry, and will continue to hinder real steps in the right direction towards just, truly renewable, and sustainable energy alternatives.

We urge CARB to Adopt a Precautionary Approach and Exclude Agrofuels: For California to be a global leader in reducing pollution from fuels, the LCFS must account for all major sources of emissions and other indirect impacts. For agrofuels, emissions from indirect land use change (ILUC) are a major source of pollution, loss of biodiversity and escalating food prices. There is no way to accurately account for all the indirect impacts related to agrofuels, whether they relate to climate, biodiversity or food security, among other issues.

The risks of serious unintended consequences are real and cannot be addressed adequately by the California Air Resources Board, or through this LCFS. We encourage CARB to adopt a precautionary approach and to exclude agrofuels from the LCFS given current evidence of serious negative impacts on forests, climate and food security. We know from peer-reviewed studies that almost every industrial agrofuel feedstock is more greenhouse gas emitting than petroleum. The lead author of one such peer-reviewed article, Joseph Fargione, has clearly stated “From a climate change perspective, current biofuels are worse than fossil fuels"”.

Take Action!:

April 14th 4:00 – 9:00 Art Build: We will be holding an art-build to prepare for Sacramento and you are all invited to join us at the RAN office.

April 23rd 12:00 - 5:00 Sacramento: Meet up with us in the Bay Area to travel together or meet up with us in Sacramento at CARB to take part in the rally and hearing.

If you’d like to join us in Sacramento, at the art build sign up. If you have questions or want to add your organization as a sponsor, please contact Levana.