Newsletter

California Air Resource Board:

The International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA) appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the California Air Resource Board’s (“CARB”) California Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, and writes specifically in response to CARB’s implementation question(1)(d):

Should entities that sell energy, or other goods and services, into California through a separate market, like the energy imbalance market or extended day ahead market, be covered?

We write to strongly discourage CARB from including such entities under the definition of entities that “do[] business in California” as including them raises serious constitutional concerns. Specifically, a definition that included these entities would create significant Due Process concerns, as well as violate the Commerce Clause and notions of federalism by attempting to subject out-of-state entities to this law based on actions that have no or at best only a theoretical nexus to the State of California. CARB must adopt a reasonable definition of “doing business” in California in order to provide a clear and workable definition to regulated entities and to ensure its climate disclosure implementation rules are on sound legal footing.

Attached below is a copy of the full comments.

Dear Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader Jeffries, Majority Leader Thune, and Minority Leader Schumer:

Our organizations represent a wide range of stakeholders in the energy, agricultural, and transportation sectors. Together, we comprise the value chain responsible for the production, distribution, retail, and use of transportation fuels. Collectively, we employ tens of millions of Americans—from refinery workers to farmers— to ensure our nation and others around the globe have the fuel needed for our economies to thrive. We strongly support Congress’ efforts to protect consumer vehicle choice by using the Congressional Review Act to disapprove these unachievable California vehicle rules, including those that would ban the internal combustion engine, and would harm American economic and national security.

In recent years California enacted a series of rules, adopted by other states, that mandate the rapid electrification of the transportation sector, including the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) and Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rules, as well as the unachievable Heavy-Duty Omnibus rule. In fact, the ACC II rule bans the sale of new gasoline-powered and traditional hybrid vehicles by 2035. These rules not only inhibit consumer choice but pose a threat to our national security through reliance on unstable and adversarial supply chains. Furthermore, California and states following its rules have a national impact on U.S. vehicle fleet offerings by accounting for more than 30 percent of the light-duty vehicle sales in the country, compelling manufacturers to make and sell certain models and engine technologies and not others.

While we support reducing emissions in the transportation sector, forced electrification and unachievable standards are not the only way to accomplish this. In a country as big and diverse as ours, vehicle offerings need to be diverse to meet Americans’ wide-ranging transportation needs.

Simone currently serves as the Air Compliance Manager for Hartree Partners, where she brings over a decade of experience in the terminal industry, specifically focusing on environmental compliance. ILTA welcomes Simone as the new co-chair of the Environment Subcommittee, and we look forward to her insightful contributions. 

Recently, we had the privilege of interviewing Simone to discuss her impact on the industry and involvement with ILTA.

The future investments and development of the renewable fuels sector face some uncertainty. Earlier this year, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released guidance on the Clean Fuels Production Credit (Sec. 45Z), a tax credit that consolidates and replaces previous credits for biodiesel, renewable diesel, alternative fuels, and sustainable aviation fuel. The recently issued guidance marks an important step toward implementing the credit and supporting the future development of renewable fuels markets.

On March 4, 2025, EPA sent a letter to ILTA, API, and AFPM granting part of the associations’ collective petitions on the 2024 gasoline distribution rule, specifically on the NSPS Subpart XXa provision.