February 15, 2018 By Ralph Grimmer The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is moving forward with a marked reduction in the maximum sulfur content of marine fuel (bunker fuel oil) from 3.5% to 0.5% on January 1, 2020. In the first four articles of our series on this “IMO 2020 Rule,” Stillwater provided an overview of the rule followed by assessments...
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January 15, 2018 By Megan Boutwell Stillwater’s transportation energy policy experts closely follow federal, state, and international policy developments and their impacts on industry and consumers. As 2018 begins, there are a number of policy trends that we will be following and for which we’ll provide expertise to clients. The following are of some of the biggest policy trends we...
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January 10, 2018 By Miriam Stern Last month, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved the final version of California’s 2017 Climate Change Scoping Plan, a blueprint for reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs), bolstering clean energy, and improving air quality. We previously summarized the proposed Scoping Plan (drafted early last year), and, while the overall framework in the final plan...
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January 15, 2018 By Ralph Grimmer of Stillwater Associates, and Adrian Tolson of 20|20 Marine Energy The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is moving forward with a marked reduction from 3.5% to 0.5% in the maximum sulfur content of marine fuel (bunker fuel oil) on January 1, 2020. In our November 2017 newsletter, Stillwater provided Part 3 of our...
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November 16, 2017 by Ralph Grimmer, James Ahrens, and Leigh Noda The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is moving forward with a marked reduction from 3.5% to 0.5% in the maximum sulfur content of marine fuel (bunker fuel oil) on January 1, 2020. In our October newsletter, Stillwater provided Part 2 of our series on this “IMO 2020 Rule”, focusing on...
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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. We will be featuring 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...
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October 12, 2017 by Ralph Grimmer and Michael Myers Stillwater is following the progress and impact of the International Maritime Organization’s Global Maximum Sulfur Content of Marine Fuel Rule, or IMO 2020. Our first article, IMO 2020 Part 1: The evolution of the marine sulfur regulation, appeared on the website in September 2017. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is moving...
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October 10, 2017 by Kendra Seymour As often happens in the aftermath of natural disasters, there has been increased coverage in the last month debating the merits of a 97-year-old law which affects delivery of goods to U.S. shores. You’ve likely heard talk about the Jones Act, but do you know what it is and how it affects disaster-struck areas...
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September 13, 2017 by Ralph Grimmer Stillwater is following the progress and impact of the International Maritime Organization’s Global Maximum Sulfur Content of Marine Fuel Rule, or IMO 2020. This is our first article in the series. Our second article, IMO 2020 Part 2: Shipowners’ Perspective, appeared on the website in October 2017. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is moving...
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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. Starting this month, we will be featuring guest articles on California’s Cap and Trade program from our friends at CaliforniaCarbon.info. CaliforniaCarbon.info is a comprehensive information service covering the...
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On August 2, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the first quarter 2017 data from the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Reporting Tool (LRT). For the first time, LCFS deficits exceeded credits for a quarter and the total banked credits declined. The chart below shows the decline in the first quarter and the break from the historical trend since...
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July 12, 2017 by Michael Leister As we continue our RFS Point of Obligation series, we look at the RIN obligations calculated in the simple example last month using 100,000 gallons of gasoline and 50,000 gallons of diesel, we need to remember typical refineries produce much larger volumes of these products. A typical refinery processes around 150,000 barrels per day...
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Dave Hackett’s presentation to CARB’s June 22, 2017 board meeting. Dave provided comments to the board on the forecasted rising LCFS cost, or hidden tax, in gasoline and diesel price. This analysis first appeared in Stillwater’s June 2017 Monthly LCFS Newsletter. You can download a copy of the presentation here. Want LCFS news, data, and exclusive expert analysis delivered to your e-mail...
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June 7, 2017 by Leigh Noda The Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) increases the cost of the gasoline and diesel fuels produced from crude oil by requiring credits to offset the LCFS deficits. Stillwater projects that this program will add another 20 cpg to the consumer price of gasoline by 2020. To date, the LCFS cost has been relatively low,...
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June 6, 2017 by Michael Leister Last month in the first edition in our RFS Point of Obligation series, we discussed the general RFS rules, this month we get more specific about RIN generation and RFS Compliance. When a renewable fuel producer like an ethanol production facility or biomass-based diesel manufacturing plant produces a compliant renewable fuel, the renewable fuel...
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June 6, 2017 by Kendra Seymour Introduction Last week President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the historic Paris Climate Agreement, signaling a lack of commitment at the federal level to combatting climate change. Many states, municipalities, and companies, however, have voiced continued support for the Paris Agreement and have affirmed their intention to fulfill the tenets of the Agreement. Sub-national...
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May 1, 2017 by Michael Leister For the past year or more, there has been a lot of discussion in the transportation fuels industry on moving the current Renewable Fuels Standard 2 (RFS2) point of obligation to the point where rack blending occurs. Currently the point of obligation is with refiners and importers, however the RINs for RFS compliance are...
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May 1, 2017 by David Hackett The term “oil supply chain” is a way to describe the activities that are required to produce crude oil out of the ground, move it to the refinery, transform the crude oil into fuel, and move the fuel to consumers. The chief air pollutant in crude oil is sulfur. Governments and industry have been...
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April 24, 2017 By Rob Nikolewski, The San Diego Union-Tribune In an indication of just how much California is affected by gasoline prices, at least three different groups on Monday weighed in on the ramifications of Senate Bill 1, the $52.4 billion effort passed by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature earlier this month. One organization that concentrates on policy solutions...
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February 28, 2017 by Megan Boutwell Not too long ago a friend checked in looking for an LCFS tutorial. Based on that request we decided to put together a handy dandy LCFS guide. We could go on for days about this stuff, but we’ll show a little discipline and just give you the high points. The LCFS can seem like...
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January 17, 2017 by EJ Ledet and Mike Leister Effective January 1, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began requiring all U.S. gasoline to meet an annual 10 ppm average sulfur requirement as part of their new Tier 3 vehicle and fuel regulations. The 10 ppm sulfur average applies at the refinery gate, which is the point where finished...
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November 17, 2016 Each quarter, our Stillwater LCFS Quarterly Newsletter takes an in-depth look at one aspect of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard and other low carbon standard efforts around the country. In our latest LCFS Quarterly Newsletter, Leigh Noda analyzes the LCFS credit trends. The following is an excerpt from the latest Stillwater Quarterly LCFS Newsletter. The credits and...
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February 23, 2015 by Dave Hirshfeld, MathPro Inc. In November 2014, the Presidents of the U.S. and China agreed to new curbs on the two countries’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, stating that: “The U.S. intends to reduce its emissions by 26%-28% below its 2005 level by 2025 and to make its best efforts to reduce its emissions by 28%.” “China...
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December 12, 2013 by David Hackett For a long time I’ve been concerned about the barriers that have been created to stifle industrial development in the United States. Here in California it is virtually impossible to create new industrial facilities. For example, we have a client who has been working for years to develop a new crude-by-rail unloading facility in...
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