Just released&nbsp;Q2 2020&nbsp;data from the&nbsp;California Air Resources Boardâ€¯has&nbsp;confirmed that&nbsp;the energy weightedâ€¯carbon intensity (CI)â€¯value ofâ€¯California&rsquo;sâ€¯natural gas&nbsp;vehicle fuel portfolio in the&nbsp;Low Carbon Fuel Standard program&nbsp;was&nbsp;below zero&mdash;at&nbsp;-0.85 gCO2e/MJ.â€¯This is the first time in the history of the LCFS&nbsp;program that any low carbon fuel&nbsp;portfolio&nbsp;has achieved&nbsp;a&nbsp;carbon negative&nbsp;status.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Given the large and&nbsp;growing&nbsp;volume of heavy-duty natural gas vehicles already&nbsp;hard at work&nbsp;on California&rsquo;s roads, this is an extremely significant milestone,&rdquo; said Todd Campbell, chair of the California&nbsp;Natural Gas Vehicle Partnership&nbsp;and vice president&nbsp;of&nbsp;public policy and regulatory affairs, Clean Energy.&nbsp;&ldquo;Both the short-&nbsp;and long-term climate benefits of this achievement are&nbsp;extremely significant. When combined with the fact that&nbsp;most&nbsp;natural&nbsp;gas vehicles&nbsp;recently&nbsp;placed into service&nbsp;are&nbsp;powered by near-zero emission engines, the natural gas vehicle industry is providing the most substantial&nbsp;and cost-effective&nbsp;contributions towards&nbsp;California&rsquo;s goals to reduce criteria and greenhouse gas emissions&nbsp;while&nbsp;eliminating&nbsp;the use of diesel in favor of renewable,&nbsp;low carbon fuels.&rdquo;&nbsp;
California&rsquo;s&nbsp;LCFS,&nbsp;which measures theâ€¯climate impactâ€¯of variousâ€¯motor vehicleâ€¯fuel pathways,â€¯is a market-based incentive program designed to decrease the carbon intensity of California's transportation fuelâ€¯andâ€¯insteadâ€¯provide a range of low-carbon and renewable fuel alternatives, reducingâ€¯petroleum dependency and achievingâ€¯air quality benefits. The &ldquo;carbon intensity&rdquo; of any given fuelâ€¯measuresâ€¯allâ€¯greenhouse gasâ€¯emissionsâ€¯associated with theâ€¯entire life cycle of a transportation fuelâ€¯includingâ€¯productionâ€¯andâ€¯consumption. Transportation fuels with low&mdash;orâ€¯evenâ€¯negative&mdash;carbon intensityâ€¯scoresâ€¯are better forâ€¯the environmentâ€¯as they produce lessâ€¯climate-alteringâ€¯greenhouse gasâ€¯emissions.â€¯&nbsp;
Renewable natural gasâ€¯(RNG)&mdash;which is&nbsp;producedâ€¯byâ€¯capturingâ€¯and processingâ€¯the methane emitted from organic sources including dairy waste, wastewater treatment plants, food and green waste, landfills, and forest management&mdash;has the lowest carbon intensity rating of all fuels in the CARB LCFS program.&nbsp;Many forms of RNG, such as that produced from food and green waste, have a carbon neutral and even a carbon negative rating.&nbsp;Other forms&nbsp;of RNG, such as that produced from dairy waste, can have carbon intensity ratings that are 200 to 300&nbsp;percent lower than even a battery electric vehicle powered by renewable energy&nbsp;such as&nbsp;solar or wind.&nbsp;
The most recent data from CARB&rsquo;s&nbsp;LCFS program also confirms another significant milestone&mdash;RNG made up nearly 90 percent of&nbsp;all natural&nbsp;gas&nbsp;vehicle fuel&nbsp;in the program and&nbsp;consumed&nbsp;in California in the first half of 2020. Looking ahead,&nbsp;both&nbsp;the volume&nbsp;and&nbsp;carbon intensity&nbsp;benefits&nbsp;of RNG consumed by California will&nbsp;continue to grow.&nbsp;More than&nbsp;1 billion dollars of investment is currently taking place in California to develop a wide array of in-state RNG production projects. As California continues to source increasing amounts of transportation-grade RNG from projects with carbon negative sources, such as dairy biogas, the average carbon intensity of California-produced RNG will only continue to improve.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Gladstein,â€¯Neandrossâ€¯&amp; Associates, a California-based clean transportation and energy consulting firm, recently released aâ€¯<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=AZNs5ixcSe64ONmIglyu5NrkHrGdc4sTvIawIsUgPJxSM2C7NT3ejnXa3-6toi5ukWJoDm51A8ZeGddPySRshHZWv3L_setHSEp3rJPwkrf8D30oqzEgJyt02eqFA-e3nPDuURq1Ae8wE2XpLLHJABKHBgjtGqK5Squ2p15WmnyS2JojImJUYMVMTpqPUUOLAT9crENCHzRsTtPf1JX20g==" target="_blank">study</a> whichâ€¯forecastsâ€¯that,â€¯by January 2024,â€¯California-produced RNG&nbsp;for&nbsp;transportation&nbsp;will have an average energy-weighted carbon intensity of -101.74 gCO2e/MJ,â€¯generating 3.4 million tons of GHG reductions annually.â€¯At that negative carbon intensity, an average natural gas vehicle fueled by California RNG will completely offset the GHG emissions of two diesel trucks.â€¯&nbsp;
&ldquo;As long as we have a productive society,â€¯weâ€¯will continue to generateâ€¯organicâ€¯wasteâ€¯that has the potential to produce methane,&rdquo; said Cliff Gladstein,â€¯foundingâ€¯president of Gladstein,â€¯Neandrossâ€¯&amp; Associates andâ€¯aâ€¯key author of the study. &ldquo;Harnessing these methane emissions to produce RNG for transportation fuel enables us to immediately and cost-effectively reduce the impacts of climate change.&rdquo;â€¯&nbsp;
RNG can be used as a seamless, drop-in replacement for conventional natural gas in transportation. Additionally, due to the financial incentives available throughâ€¯programs including theâ€¯LCFS,â€¯RNGâ€¯canâ€¯be purchased at a price on par with&mdash;or lowerâ€¯than&mdash;the price of diesel, based on the CI.&nbsp; Dairy gas produced RNG can generate a significantly greater discount than landfill gas, significantly reducing&nbsp;total cost of ownership and operation for the fleets, especially those that have their own fueling infrastructure.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We are thrilled to see&nbsp;the growing use of low carbon&nbsp;renewable natural gas by&nbsp;our customers in California and&nbsp;across the U.S.,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Tom Swenson,&nbsp;vice-chair of the California Natural Gas Vehicle Partnership and&nbsp;business development manager for Cummins Inc.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;Fleets are increasingly&nbsp;interested in taking real and immediate actions on climate change and local air quality. This one-two punch of renewable natural gas in an ultra-clean engine allows fleets to&nbsp;achieve cost-effective&nbsp;carbon&nbsp;negative&nbsp;operations right now in a vehicle that meets their operational requirements.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Fleets across&nbsp;the country&nbsp;have been successfully using natural gas vehicles for more than two decades. Today, more than 175,000 natural gas vehicles are on U.S.&nbsp;roads. Near-zero natural gas trucks and buses are commercially available from more than 50 different vehicle manufacturers&mdash;including&nbsp;Autocar,&nbsp;Bluebird,&nbsp;El Dorado National,&nbsp;Freightliner,&nbsp;Gillig,&nbsp;Kenworth, Mack, Peterbilt,&nbsp;Thomas, Tico,&nbsp;Volvo&nbsp;and others. With these well-established brands also comes robust sales and service networks, as well as an expansive public fueling network dispensing renewable natural gas.&nbsp;
&ldquo;With a&nbsp;strong foundation in place, CNGVP&nbsp;members&nbsp;look forward to working with&nbsp;Governor Newsom,&nbsp;CARB, California Energy Commission,&nbsp;local California air districts,&nbsp;the Biden&nbsp;Administration&nbsp;and the federal government&nbsp;to further build upon these extremely important successes,&rdquo; added Campbell. &ldquo;With smart policies,&nbsp;we&nbsp;have the ability to significantly scale up these short- and long-term emission benefits, while providing an economically sustainable alternative fuel option to customers,&nbsp;simultaneously driving in-state investment in circular economies at the local level; it&rsquo;s a win-win-win-win opportunity.&rdquo;&nbsp;
To learn more about howâ€¯near-zero emissionâ€¯natural gas trucks fueled by renewable natural gas offer one of the best opportunities forâ€¯Californiaâ€¯toâ€¯achieve clean air and climate change mitigation as quickly,â€¯cost-effectively, and efficiently as possible, visitâ€¯<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=hTMjzztfvq18ZGExvoL2bkRFT3cC6Mx5V_m6eNTWmZmdNZb2kSg1jwp8nBr4ZbidD50SHNKO2LAn4Q1aWWoi3g==" target="_blank">www.cngvp.org</a>.
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Just released Q2 2020 data from CARB has confirmed that the energy weightedâ€¯carbon intensity (CI)â€¯value ofâ€¯California'sâ€¯natural gas vehicle fuel portfolio in the LCFS program was below zero—at -0.85 gCO2e/MJ.â€¯

RNG helps reach carbon negative milestone in California

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