CARB is considering acceleration of the 2030 Carbon Intensity targets
The California Air Resources Board has approved a measure that will require most newly manufactured small off-road engines to be zero emission starting in 2024.
While the changes will not impact much materials handling equipment, they reinforce Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order signed in September 2020 that moves the state closer to a zero-emission future.
Incentive funds will be available to commercial purchasers of new zero-emission equipment through CARB's Clean Off-Road Equipment Voucher Incentive Project (CORE), which was created to accelerate deployment of cleaner off-road technologies.
Meanwhile, emissions consultant Darrell Kong tells Forkliftaction News that equipment users should watch out for several planned Air Resources Board workshops which will provide further guidance on policy changes under consideration.
He notes that CARB does not intend to execute any of the proposed revisions until January 2024 and the period for public comments and the legislative process will begin in 2023.
He believes CARB is considering acceleration of the 2030 Carbon Intensity (CI) targets as well as extensions of reduction goals and related programs (LCFS) to 2050.
He witnessed some concern at a recent workshop about the significant price decrease of LCFS credits (from USD220 in late 2020 to current levels in the USD140 range). “Multiple stakeholders called for institution of credit supply reductions to provide price support which would parallel measures that CARB has to increase credit supply to set a price ceiling,” he says, noting that volatility and price decreases impact capital projections and some projects have been cancelled because of the falling credit price.
“CARB is exploring how the LCFS program can better incentivise the deployment of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure (HRI) specifically for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. This is a positive, but the surprising part of the language is this did not include EV charging. It should be an obvious aspect to include, but it notably isn’t,” he says.