California OAL rejects amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation

25 February 2025

In a unexpected development, the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has rejected amendments to the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation. CARB approved these LCFS amendments for adoption in November 2024.

The reasons for the OAL disapproval remain unclear. CARB expects to receive more information from the OAL explaining the decision soon. CARB said it intends to address any concerns raised by the OAL and resubmit the LCFS amendments for approval, which would be required within 120 days.

The LCFS program sets annual carbon intensity standards, which reduce over time, for gasoline, diesel, and the fuels that replace them. Carbon intensity is expressed in g-CO₂/MJ and accounts for the complete life cycle GHG emissions of the fuel.

The 2024 amendments would increase the LCFS target to reduce the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuel pool from the current 20% to 30% by 2030, and introduce a new target of 90% by 2045. (The reductions are relative to the 2010 baseline.)

Other changes introduced by the amendments include new guardrails to avoid land use changes resulting in potential loss of food production or deforestation; a limit on credits for biomass-based diesel (BBD) produced from virgin soybean and canola oil; and a phase-out of credits for avoided methane emissions.

The California Office of Administrative Law is a state agency whose mandate is to ensure that “regulations are clear, necessary, legally valid, and available to the public.”

Source: CARB