May 10, 2021 by Leigh Noda Back in February, we published an article about the factors contributing to the price of gasoline in California. We concluded that, contrary to what some may claim, GHG-reduction programs and taxes on petroleum fuels have a cost, and these costs are passed through to consumers. That first article focused on gasoline, but diesel customers...
Read More
May 10, 2021 By Olivier (Olly) Macé Over the coming months, Stillwater plans to publish a series of articles highlighting potential paths to Net Zero here in the U.S. and globally. We kick off this series with an article from one of our newest Senior Associates who lives in England. Greetings from old Europe, where the interest in the energy...
Read More
April 30, 2021 This afternoon, CARB posted the fourth quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 4Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation for the nine months following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the fourth quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter...
Read More
April 26, 2021 Over the weekend, the Washington State Legislature passed HB 1091, the state’s Clean Fuel Standard. The bill is now on Governor Jay Inslee’s desk awaiting signature. Assuming Governor Inslee signs the legislation, which is all but certain, Washington will join California, Oregon, and British Columbia as states/provinces on the West Coast to enact LCFS style programs that mandate the reduction of carbon emissions in the transport fuel...
Read More
April 26, 2021 by Mike Newman, Director of Parhelion Underwriting As the aviation industry seeks to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, decoupling airline growth from carbon growth, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) has emerged as the leading approach to further reduce GHG emissions from jet aircraft. The world’s aviation sector currently accounts for approximately 2-3% of manmade global carbon emissions....
Read More
On April 12, 2021, Stillwater Senior Associate Gary Yowell presented at the SAE High-Efficiency IC Engine Symposium Digital Summit on the topic of how zero-emissions vehicles stack up against super-clean gasoline and diesel engines. To view a PDF version of Gary’s slide deck, click here.
April 1, 2021 By Steve Holton In the first quarter of 2021, prices at the pump have been rising steadily, leading many people to complain once again about the price of gasoline. Have you ever wondered how the price of gasoline or diesel is derived? A multitude of factors impact the price we pay at the pump including, of course,...
Read More
March 29, 2021 By Marcy Casement The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) represents an estimate (in dollars) of the damage to society and the environment over time from each additional metric ton (MT) of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. This figure takes into account damage from the effects of climate change, such as sea-level rise, extreme weather, and water...
Read More
March 17, 2021 by Jim Mladenik The Washington state legislature is currently considering legislation (HB 1091) that would require fuel producers and importers to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to each unit of transportation fuel, a measure known as “carbon intensity.” Carbon intensity includes not only the emissions associated with burning fuels but also the emissions created in extracting...
Read More
March 4, 2021 By Gary Yowell Over the last few years, the California state legislature has considered numerous bills which seek to incentivize the replacement of diesel fuel with hydrogen in the transportation sector. Such a transition would require significant investments in hydrogen retail infrastructure and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), and the legislature aims to soften that blow with...
Read More
March 1, 2021 By Adam Schubert With the completion of the current season of refiner quarterly earnings reports, federal Renewable Fuel Standard credits – known as renewable identification numbers, or RINs – prices are once more in the headlines. As RIN prices have increased since the beginning of 2020, it is worth taking another look at this key element of...
Read More
February 15, 2021 Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) programs are structured to reduce the carbon intensity (CI) of transportation fuels over time by setting progressively stricter CI reduction standards each year. All fuels with CI values higher than the standard, such as petroleum gasoline and diesel, generate deficits. Fuels produced or imported with CIs lower than the standard, such as...
Read More
February 2, 2021 By Gary Yowell The California Air Resource Board (CARB) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are empowered through the Clean Air Act and other legislation to expeditiously reduce the severity and number of violations to air quality standards.[1] Current environmental policy uses annual pollution levels to measure and define success, but the legislative authority to enact...
Read More
February 1, 2021 By Leigh Noda California has a history of having the highest gasoline prices in the country. Why? For one, the West Coast fuels market is isolated from other supply/demand centers. As such, the West Coast is susceptible to unexpected outages of West Coast refineries as it is unable to backfill an unexpected loss in supply by quickly...
Read More
January 29, 2021 On Friday afternoon, January 29th, CARB posted the third quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 3Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation for the six months following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the third-quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter...
Read More
January 10, 2021 By Mike Leister On December 4, 2020 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its final rule on streamlining the existing gasoline, diesel, and other fuel quality regulations by removing no-longer relevant provisions, getting rid of duplicate compliance provisions (e.g., duplicative registration requirements that are required by every EPA fuels program), dropping unnecessary and out-of-date requirements, and...
Read More
December 18, 2020 by Jim Mladenik A previous Stillwater analysis determined that roughly 75% of credits in Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program (CFP) and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) programs are derived from fuels produced outside of those states. The same analysis suggested that a similar trend is likely for Washington state should it adopt an LCFS-style program. In the...
Read More
On November 17th, Stillwater Associates launched the West Coast Watch. This market information portal provides refined petroleum product and renewable fuels supply and demand data, industry news, and analysis to help industry leaders understand the market, spot opportunities, and act confidently. The West Coast transportation fuels market is often referred to as an island, full of complexities and obstacles...
Read More
November 18, 2020 Through our new West Coast Watch platform, Stillwater is pleased to offer this forward-looking view on the possible changes to medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel demand and emissions under California’s Advanced Clean Truck Regulation. This Stillwater Special Report provides an overview of California’s Advanced Clean Truck Rule (ACT) and its impacts on medium- and heavy-duty vehicle (MHDV)...
Read More
November 2, 2020 On Friday afternoon, October 30th, CARB posted the second quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 2Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation for the three months following stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the second quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published...
Read More
October 20, 2020 by Jim Mladenik Summary California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and Oregon’s Clean Fuel Program (CFP) are designed to provide significant financial incentives for the production and blending of low-carbon fuels into the states’ transportation fuels systems. These incentives can be large enough to spur development of numerous projects to reduce the carbon intensity (CI) of ethanol,...
Read More
September 24, 2020 By Kendra Seymour Yesterday, shortly after California’s governor Gavin Newsom announced his Executive Order mandating 100% ZEV car sales by 2035, I caught up with a few of my colleagues via Slack to get a better understanding of the issues around electrification. Thinking that this dialogue might be of interest to our readers, we published that initial back-and-forth....
Read More
September 23, 2020 By Kendra Seymour As editor of Stillwater’s LCFS Newsletter and a contributor on many of Stillwater’s LCFS-related client projects, I spend most of my time researching and reporting around renewables markets and the programs which incentivize the development, deployment, and adoption of alternative fuels. Today, shortly after California’s governor Gavin Newsom announced his Executive Order mandating 100% ZEV car...
Read More
August 25, 2020 By Gary Yowell For the past week, dozens of lightning-induced wildfires have raged in California, resulting in unhealthy, smoke-laden air. The air quality is so poor that it has exceeded particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) ambient air quality standards. PM10 is smoke that can be trapped on a 10-micron filter, PM2.5 is even smaller smoke particles that...
Read More
July 31, 2020 Today, CARB posted the first quarter 2020 data for the LCFS program. The 1Q2020 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation as stay-at-home orders went into place due to COVID-19. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the first-quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter which...
Read More
April 30, 2020 Today, CARB posted the fourth quarter 2019 data for the LCFS program. Although probably not the thing at the front of everyone’s minds given everything else going on in the world, the LCFS program rolls on, and the 4Q2019 report gives us insight into the credit bank situation going into 2020 and forms a basis to assess...
Read More
On April 30th, 2020, Stillwater President Dave Hackett participated in a webinar hosted by Parhelion Underwriting on the topic of how the fallout from COVID-19 will affect environmental commodities. Dave spoke about the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit markets. To view a PDF version of Dave’s slide deck, click here.
April 15, 2020 By Leigh Noda For the past month, the Stillwater LCFS team has been publishing regular reports on how COVID-19 is affecting the LCFS program and the fuels markets governed by the program. This is the latest of that series. You can read our previous updates here. Want to receive updates like this and other in-depth analysis of the...
Read More
April 3, 2020 Note: The title of today’s analysis pays tribute to onetime Navy aircraft mechanic and three-time Grammy Award winner Bill Withers who died March 30th. As AP reporter Mark Kennedy observed, Withers’ “death comes as the public has drawn inspiration from his music during the coronavirus pandemic, with health care workers, choirs, artists and more posting their own renditions on...
Read More
March 20, 2020 A month ago, WTI crude oil price closed at $52.10 per barrel, the Dow Jones closed at 29,232 and the S&P at 3,370. Yesterday, these values were $25.22, 20,087 and 2,409 respectively. Clearly, the past month has been unprecedented for both the crude oil and financial markets. Socially, almost everyone in the U.S. has had their everyday...
Read More
March 10, 2020 By Leigh Noda The last week of February marked the biggest drop in the stock market since the financial crisis of 2008. The S&P index was down 11.5% on the week ending February 28th. The Dow Jones was down 12.4% over the same week. This compares to the week ending October 10, 2008 when the S&P index...
Read More
On March 3, 2020, Stillwater’s VP of Operations, Megan Boutwell, presented at the Aviation Noise & Emissions Symposium in San Diego. The summit was hosted by the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center. Megan spoke about Sustainable Aviation Fuel goals and trends. To view a PDF version of Megan’s slide deck, click here.
February 12, 2020 By Gary Yowell The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has a long and proud history of ambitious reductions to air pollution which CARB deems necessary to meet ambient air quality standards. Continuing this 50-year trend, CARB is considering reducing its heavy-duty vehicles’ nitrogen oxides (NOx) standard by 90%. This new NOx standard[1] would require extensive and expensive...
Read More
February 11, 2020 By Ralph Grimmer Over the past three years, Stillwater Associates has offered a series of articles on various aspects of IMO 2020. The long-awaited IMO 2020 regulations were implemented on January 1, 2020 – 40 days ago. In this article, we will provide our takeaways on how the initial rollout has gone, a recap of strategies/tactics that...
Read More
February 6, 2020 By Jim Mladenik Alternate jet fuel (AJF, also known as bio-jet or renewable jet fuel) has made the news lately as it is now included as an opt-in fuel under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), and many airlines are clamoring to reduce their carbon footprints and paint themselves as more climate-friendly. But the production of and...
Read More
February 3, 2020 On January 31st, 2020 CARB posted the third quarter of 2019 data for the LCFS program. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the third-quarter data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter which is scheduled to be published on February 14th. The third-quarter data shows a slowing of the...
Read More
January 15, 2020 By Ron Pike In an effort to further reduce hydrocarbon consumption in the U.S., 95 RON (Research Octane Number) gasoline has been suggested as a way to help achieve proposed higher corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) requirements. A higher RON allows an internal combustion engine to run at a higher compression ratio, achieve more power, and, therefore,...
Read More
January 5, 2020 by Mike Leister and E.J. Ledet Effective January 1, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began requiring all U.S. gasoline to meet an annual 10 parts per million (ppm) average sulfur requirement as part of its new Tier 3 vehicle and fuel regulations. (Stillwater wrote a quick guide to Tier 3 back then, and it’s still...
Read More
November 21, 2019 By Megan Boutwell Last month we looked at how CORSIA, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation, is being implemented. The rule is currently in the baseline development phase and won’t be mandatory for international flights until 2027. This international rule is one pillar in a larger strategy set forth...
Read More
November 15, 2019 By Leigh Noda On October 31st, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the data reported by fuel-reporting Entities into the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Reporting Tool (LRT) through the second quarter of 2019. Stillwater has analyzed the data and included our analysis in our Second Quarter 2019 LCFS Newsletter (subscription required). In this article, we...
Read More
November 1, 2019 On October 31st, CARB posted the second quarter of 2019 data for the LCFS program. In today’s flash report, we offer a quick look at the data. Our comprehensive analysis will be published in Stillwater’s Quarterly LCFS Newsletter which is scheduled to be published on November 14th. The second quarter data show credits growing more than deficits...
Read More
October 24, 2019 By Megan Boutwell As we explained in our CORSIA 101 article a few months back, the goal of CORSIA – the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation – is to cap carbon emissions from international aviation at 2020 levels. In many ways, this United Nations effort to reduce emissions in...
Read More
October 15, 2019 By Gary Yowell Estimating vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has important implications for analyzing and forecasting transportation fuel use and carbon dioxide CO2 emissions. VMT estimates are frequently used as the foundation for transportation fuel use analyses and forecasts. This practice should be carefully examined, especially given the four widely varying VMT estimates found for the same historic...
Read More
September 20, 2019 by Jeff Kennedy “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I’m sitting here on a Friday afternoon, contemplating just how true that old adage is. More than 25 years ago, before Stillwater was launched and before the ExxonMobil merger, I was with Mobil West Coast Supply in Long Beach working with many of the...
Read More
On September 19th, Stillwater Senior Associate Ralph Grimmer presented at the 2019 West Coast Harbor Safety Committee Summit on the Queen Mary off the coast of Long Beach. The summit was sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) and the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force. Ralph spoke about the...
Read More
September 1, 2019 by Mike Newman of Parhelion Underwriting 2018 saw the shipping industry take its first steps towards addressing the challenge of climate change when, at its 72nd session in April, IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) adopted an initial strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping by at least 50% by 2050. The United Nations body...
Read More
August 21, 2019 by Gary Yowell In 1990, California adopted the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate designed to help achieve the state’s long-term emissions reduction goals by requiring manufacturers to sell specific quantities of battery-electric, fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The ZEV mandate has seen several modifications over the past three decades, and now there is a growing...
Read More
Several years ago, Parhelion introduced the Platinum Carbon Credit invalidation™ insurance product to the California Cap & Trade market and followed up with the Platinum RINs invalidation™ insurance policy for the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) earlier this year. They have now entered another environmental commodity market – California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). We, at Stillwater, thought our readers...
Read More
June 27, 2019 By Ralph Grimmer IMO 2020 implementation is six months away, and shipowners will likely start purchasing IMO 2020-compliant marine fuel (for vessels without onboard scrubbers) in the next three months. Stillwater Associates has offered a series of articles on various aspects of IMO 2020 over the past two years. In this month’s article, we provide an update...
Read More
June 20, 2019 By Jim Mladenik On May 31st, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a statement explaining the need for a Credit Clearance Market (CCM) to enable deficit holders in the Clean Fuels Program (CFP) to balance their accounts for the 2018 calendar year. Six entities (ARS Fresno, Conrad & Bischoff, Costco, Pilot, Pounder Oil Service, and...
Read More
On April 24, 2019, Stillwater’s VP of Operations, Megan Boutwell, presented Stillwater’s analysis of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit and price trends at the North American Carbon World (NACW) Conference in Los Angeles. You can view a PDF of Megan’s presentation here. Want LCFS news, data, and exclusive expert analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox? Subscribe to our...
Read More
March 20, 2019 By Jim Mladenik & Ralph Grimmer Over the past two years, Stillwater Associates has offered a series of articles on various aspects of IMO 2020. Implementation of IMO 2020 is now less than ten months away. In this article, we will provide information on data sources providing visibility to spot and futures prices for IMO 2020-compliant blends...
Read More
Stillwater has written a lot about the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program over the years, and we even publish a one-of-a-kind LCFS Newsletter covering California’s program. We’ve also reported on Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program (CFP) from its inception in 2016. Now, we turn to Canada’s under-construction Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) which aims to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG)...
Read More
March 13, 2019 By Kendra Seymour My colleagues Megan Boutwell, Jim Mladenik, and I attended the first-ever Washington Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Summit last week in Seattle. The summit was hosted by Earth Day Northwest 2020 and presented by Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and the Port of Seattle. Washington Governor and U.S. Presidential Candidate Jay Inslee even made...
Read More
What is CORSIA? CORSIA (the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) is a program administered by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) with a goal of capping CO2 (carbon) emissions from international aviation at 2020 levels. A future goal is to reduce net carbon emissions fifty percent by 2050 compared to 2005 levels. Carbon emissions from domestic aviation...
Read More
February 1, 2019 By John Wolff On December 4, 2018, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) hosted its 2018 Liquefied Gas Senior Executive Forum in Houston. The program was co-sponsored by the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGGTO) and the Society of Gas as a Marine Fuel (SGMF). The forum’s speakers addressed many aspects of using LNG as...
Read More
Acuity Commodities has partnered with Stillwater Associates to model three scenarios reflecting implementation of new International Maritime Organization (IMO) marine fuel rule from January 1, 2020, when the maximum sulphur content in bunker fuel oil has to be reduced to 0.50%. With the IMO 2020 implementation deadline unlikely to be postponed and less than 12 months away, sulphur and acid...
Read More
January 12, 2019 By Leigh Noda Humankind is unique in the animal kingdom in our ability to creatively utilize energy. Over the history of humankind, the primary source of energy we’ve used has changed from self to dung to wood to hydro to coal to petroleum, and now we are transitioning toward renewables and energy from the sun. (It’s worth...
Read More
By John Wolff, Senior Associate Image: KLAW LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) can be used as a fuel for ships (and trucks and buses) with specially designed fuel tanks. Currently, few U.S.- and foreign-flagged vessels are fueled with LNG, although that number may increase with the coming IMO 2020 regulation. U.S. officials have historically treated LNG with extreme caution in...
Read More
On December 13, 2018, Stillwater Senior Associate Leigh Noda participated as a panelist at the OPIS LCFS & Carbon Markets Workshop in San Francisco. The panelists were asked to address: “What exactly will the long-term price of the LCFS credit look like? As the LCFS program heads into 2020 and beyond, what products will produce the most credits?” Leigh weighed in...
Read More
November 14, 2018 by Mike Newman of Parhelion Underwriting Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposed a “buyer beware” approach to the purchase and sale of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs). This creates a liability for any buyer of RINs, making them responsible for purchases of invalid RINS, even if done inadvertently.[1] The liability includes the...
Read More
On October 31st, 2018, Stillwater Senior Associate Ralph Grimmer presented comments on IMO 2020 – the International Maritime Organization’s mandated reduction in the maximum sulfur content of marine fuel (bunker fuel oil) from 3.5% to 0.5% on January 1, 2020 – at the U.S. Coast Guard/Shell “Navigating the Future” Seminar in Martinez, California. IMO 2020 will have a significant impact on the shipping and...
Read More
As the passage of AB 398 has strengthened and extended California’s Cap and Trade program, we think our readers will benefit from a spotlight on the trends in the carbon credit market. As such, we periodically feature guest articles on California’s Cap and Trade program from our friends at CaliforniaCarbon.info. CaliforniaCarbon.info is a comprehensive information service covering the Western Climate Initiative...
Read More
by Brian Conroy When Stillwater Associate Brian Conroy worked for BP in 2006 as Global Sales and Market Development Manager of Specialty Chemicals, he was offered an opportunity to try something new. With a background in chemicals, beginning in research and progressing to various roles in business, he was ready for the change. BP’s CEO had mandated the launch of...
Read More
September 12, 2018 By Jessica Loomis Twenty years ago, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) was a common additive used to oxygenate and raise the octane number in gasoline, but when incidents of MTBE leaking occurred from underground storage tanks at gas stations in California, groundwater contamination became a growing issue. MTBE isn’t particularly toxic, but its taste and odor can render...
Read More
September 7, 2018 By Jim Mladenik and Kendra Seymour Following the publication of our LCFS 101: Beginner’s Guide and LCFS 101: Update, we have received requests for a similar overview of California’s Cap and Trade (C&T) Program. To that end, here we cover what C&T is, how it works, and how it’s performing so far. What is Cap and Trade?...
Read More
September 1, 2018 by Brian Conroy This is the third and final segment in a series of articles on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In part one, we discussed the context around the passage of RFS. Part two covered the program’s primary goals and the progress to-date toward each goal. Today we conclude our series by looking down the road to discuss a new way to think about...
Read More
August 1, 2018 by Brian Conroy In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the background and drivers for the implementation of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In Part 2, we will look at how RFS has performed against each of its three primary goals: Increase energy security Provide a mechanism for higher demand for U.S. agriculture Reduce greenhouse...
Read More
July 25, 2018 By Jim Mladenik and Kendra Seymour Showing the line-item cost to consumers of carbon-reduction programs assists legislators in crafting effective policy and helps fuel consumers make informed decisions. To that end, Stillwater’s carbon policy team recently conducted an analysis of the potential impact of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and Carbon Cap & Trade (C&T) programs...
Read More
July 11, 2018 by Ralph Grimmer The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will make a significant change to the maximum allowed sulfur content of marine fuel consumed on open oceans beginning January 1, 2020. This global change (via IMO revision of its MARPOL VI rule) was triggered by an IMO decision in 2008. Over the past year, Stillwater Associates has offered...
Read More
July 8, 2018 by Adam Schubert On June 12th, 2018 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it had granted to Butamax Advanced Biofuels, LLC (Butamax) registration of blends of up to 16 volume percent (vol%) isobutanol in gasoline. Prior to granting this registration, EPA took the unusual step of seeking public comment due to, as EPA put it, the significant possibility that such isobutanol-gasoline blends had the potential for widespread use. Overview Butamax and its competitor, Gevo, have...
Read More
July 1, 2018 by Brian Conroy This is the first in a three-part series looking back at the renewable fuel standard (RFS) to reflect on the context in which it was created, what it was intended to do, how it has performed relative to the current context more than ten years later, and how the transport market should view the...
Read More
On June 19, 2018, Stillwater’s President, Dave Hackett, participated as a panel member in an informational hearing on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) held by the California State Assembly’s Select Committee on California’s Energy Future. The panel included an overview of the LCFS offered by the Legislative Analyst’s Office followed by comments from regulated parties and interested stakeholders. Dave...
Read More
June 5, 2018 by Kendra Seymour Contributors: James Ahrens, John Faulstich, Ralph Grimmer, Jim Mladenik, and Arshad Sheikh Let’s go back in time, to the late 1970s when sulfur regulations for fuel oil were less stringent and heavy San Joaquin Valley (SJV) crude was priced extremely low. This SJV was often minimally processed then dumped into the bunker fuel market...
Read More
As the passage of AB 398 has strengthened and extended California’s Cap and Trade program, we think our readers will benefit from a spotlight on the trends in the carbon credit market. As such, we periodically feature guest articles on California’s Cap and Trade program from our friends at CaliforniaCarbon.info. CaliforniaCarbon.info is a comprehensive information service covering the Western Climate Initiative...
Read More
May 2, 2018 by Megan Boutwell A lot has happened since we wrote our first LCFS 101 article last year. Here we provide an update on the rules and the status of the credit market. What is the LCFS California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard is one of a group of programs designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions enacted through...
Read More
May 2, 2018 by Stillwater Staff There’s a battle brewing between two provinces in Canada over a pipeline, and it may cause transportation fuels prices to spike at least in the short-term. Here we offer the backstory to get you up-to-date. In 2013, Kinder Morgan filed an application with the Canadian National Energy Board to essentially twin the existing 1,150...
Read More
April 25, 2018 This afternoon, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program data through the fourth quarter of 2017. The data shows a total of 9.912 million metric tonnes (MT) of credits for 2017 and 10.012 million MT in deficits, resulting in a 102,000 MT deficit for the year. The year-end LCFS credit...
Read More
On April 24, 2018, at The Sulphur Institute’s Sulphur World Symposium in Philadelphia, Stillwater Senior Associate Ralph Grimmer presented comments on IMO 2020 – the International Maritime Organization’s mandated reduction in the maximum sulfur content of marine fuel (bunker fuel oil) from 3.5% to 0.5% on January 1, 2020. Ralph’s presentation offers an IMO 2020 overview, a look at the perspectives of...
Read More
February 22, 2018 On February 20th, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released Unofficial LCFS Rulemaking Documents for public review. These proposed amendments will be considered at a CARB Board hearing in April 2018 and voted on at a second hearing in mid-to-late 2018. In the past, CARB has released draft rulemaking documentation before public workshops, but this release –...
Read More