The Bioenergy Association of California (BAC) has released a report on Decarbonizing the Gas Sector:  Why California Needs a Renewable Gas Standard, that presents a groundbreaking strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy security and jobs, and diversify California’s energy sector.   Among the Paper’s key findings:

  • California imports more than 90 percent of the natural gas it uses, costing the state thousands of jobs and billions of dollars per year.
  • Natural gas causes more than a quarter of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and is a significant source of air and water pollution.
  • California has a cleaner, safer alternative available, which is renewable gas generated from organic waste – food, yard, livestock, wastewater and forestry waste.
  • Organic waste alone can produce enough renewable gas to replace ¾ of all the diesel used by motor vehicles in California or enough electricity to power 2 to 3 million homes.
  • Renewable gas produces two to six times as many jobs per megawatt as fossil fuel gas.
  • Replacing just 10 percent of California’s gas supply with renewable gas would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by tens of millions of metric tons per year, while cutting wildfire, air pollution and landfilling.


A Renewable Gas Standard (RGS) would provide these benefits and more.  Modeled after California’s successful Renewable Portfolio Standard, which has increased renewable electricity from 10 to more than 20 percent in just over a decade, the RGS would require a small but increasing share of the state’s gas supply to be renewable.  “An RGS would help California to meet its greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy and low carbon fuel goals,” said Julia Levin, Executive Director of the Bioenergy Association of California.   “It would increase jobs and revenues in every region of the state and would increase California’s energy security by providing an instate fuel supply.  Finally, it would protect public health and safety by reducing wildfire, cutting air pollution and helping California to meet its waste reduction goals.”

For more information or to download the complete report, visit www.bioenergyca.org/category/resources/reports.

 

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