California Air Resources Board

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and California Energy Commission (CEC) invite you to participate in a community meeting to discuss how the State can create a reliable, safe, equitable, and affordable transition away from petroleum fuels in line with declining instate petroleum demand. Your feedback and personal stories will help inform a “Transportation Fuels Transition Plan” prepared by CEC and CARB pursuant to Senate Bill (SB) X1-2 (Skinner, Chapter 1, Statutes of 2023) and SB 124 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 53, Statutes of 2023).

DATE:        Tuesday, February 4, 2025
TIME:         6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
PLACE:     East Bakersfield Veterans Building
                  2101 Ridge Rd, Bakersfield, CA 93305

Spanish language interpretation services will be provided at these meetings.

Your feedback will be considered for integration into the Transportation Fuels Transition Plan to ensure the plan is reflective and representative of a wide range of community insights and concerns.

If you are unable to attend in person, you are welcome to submit comments via the contact information listed below. CARB and CEC will also be hosting a virtual workshop this Spring to gather additional public input. A notice will be issued once the workshop is scheduled.

Background

SB X1-2 was signed into law in March 2023 in response to gasoline price spikes that occurred the previous Fall and does the following:

• Authorizes CEC to set a maximum “gross gasoline refining margin” (difference between the crude oil price paid by refineries and the price they sell wholesale gasoline for).
• Establishes an independent watchdog within CEC to monitor the gasoline market.
• Sets forth new and revised reporting requirements for industries in the gasoline supply chain.
• Requires CEC to produce and periodically update a Transportation Fuels Assessment to identify methods to ensure a reliable and affordable supply of transportation fuels.
• Requires CEC and CARB to collaboratively produce a Transportation Fuels Transition Plan that builds off the Transportation Fuels Assessment and which must include “a discussion of how to ensure that the supply of petroleum and alternative transportation fuels is affordable, reliable, equitable, and adequate to meet the demand for those transportation fuels [described in the 2022 Scoping Plan].”

The Transportation Fuels Transition Plan is being prepared with the consultation of a multi-party workgroup consisting of members from “environmental justice, labor, environmental protection, land use, and public health, members representing the state’s fuel producers and refiners, and members representing state, regional, and local agencies.” (Public Resources Code Section 25371.3)

Contact

If you have questions or comments about these meetings, require special accommodations, or need materials in an alternate format (i.e., Braille, large print), please contact Jonathan Blufer by email at jonathan.blufer@arb.ca.gov or by phone at (279) 208-7687.