British Columbia files LCFS overhaul

British Columbia is proposing low-carbon fuel requirements for marine and aviation fuel and expanding the activities that can generate credits under new legislation updating the province's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

The Canadian province's government yesterday filed legislation that would replace the original 14-year-old enabling legislation for the program, broadening the scope of both credit and deficit generation as well as who may participate in the program.

LCFS programs limit the carbon intensity of transportation fuels to maximum levels that fall each year. Higher-carbon fuels that exceed the annual maximum incur deficits that suppliers must offset with credits generated by distributing approved lower-carbon alternative fuels. The BC-LCFS requires a 20pc reduction in fuel carbon intensity by 2030.

The new legislation would replace a bill passed in 2008 and allow for regulations expanding the program. Proposed changes include requiring reductions to the carbon intensity of jet fuel and marine fuel, which have been contemplated but not yet attempted in existing North American LCFS programs.

The BC-LCFS would expand to accept credits from direct air capture and other carbon sequestration technologies to spur development within the province. The program would also broaden who may generate credits and the obligations on how they are used.

Utilities would face minimum revenue requirements to support grants for rebates or other incentives to cut greenhouse gas emissions. And a revamped LCFS could allow a wider range of credit generating — "a new funding mechanism for businesses, communities, academic institutions and other parties that are commercializing new fuel production methods or developing clean-energy technologies," the government said.

By Elliott Blackburn