California’s long-running campaign to reduce air pollution has indirectly helped create a new problem: Its oil refineries now produce more greenhouse gas emissions than refineries anywhere else in the country.

On average, California refineries emit 19 to 33 percent more greenhouse gases per barrel of crude oil when stacked up against comparable gas-producing regions in the United States, according to a recent study commissioned by the Union of Concerned Scientists…

California began mandating cleaner burning fuel in the mid 1990s, in an effort to combat some of the worst smog levels in the country and comply with federal clean air laws. That spurred oil refiners to expand their facilities and install technology to remove pollutants like sulfur, so that exhaust pipes would spew out less of it.

In the last decade however, oil refineries have begun processing a heavier and dirtier type of crude oil, including Canadian tar sands oil, which requires more cleaning to meet California’s standard, and that extra cleaning means that refineries now use more energy and emit more CO2 than before.

“With respect to emissions intensity, California officials have been running around claiming California’s oil refineries are so much more energy efficient, that they are just cleaner … Obviously they were wrong,” said Greg Karras, the study’s author and a senior scientist with Communities for a Better Environment, a California nonprofit that advocates for residents who live near oil refineries.

The study’s findings emerge as California is taking another groundbreaking step to reduce global-warming gases. AB 32, a climate change law passed in 2006, aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by the end of this decade and 80 percent by 2050. One of the ways it will do that is by capping emissions at oil refineries and other industrial facilities.

Under a market-based mechanism known as cap-and-trade, refineries must gradually lower their emissions or buy or trade “allowances” to meet the new standard. Dave Clegern, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the agency tasked with implementing AB 32, said the emissions cap, which will gradually be lowered over time, will reduce greenhouse gases across key industrial sectors, including oil refining…

Oil refineries produce 10 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions and up to 40 percent of its industrial emissions, according to a 2009 report by Communities for a Better Environment…

California’s crude oil switch
Oil refineries have turned to dirtier crude in recent years because it is cheaper than the light, sweet crude. Oil refineries that have the flexibility to process a wider spectrum of crude oils—from light to heavy—have a competitive advantage and are more profitable, industry analysts say.
According to investor reports, some of the state’s top gasoline producers have upgraded their facilities to process heavier, higher sulfur crude oils. The Chevron refinery in El Segundo and the Shell refinery in Martinez added sulfur removal or recovery units. Chevron built a plant to produce hydrogen in El Segundo and has a permit pending for a similar expansion in Richmond.

Karras, the study’s author, emphasized that California’s tough environmental laws aren’t solely responsible for the rise in refinery emissions, because other states in his study have adopted similar laws over the years. What sets California apart, he said, is the way its refineries go about removing the sulfur.

California’s refineries generally choose to remove the sulfur earlier in the process, or further “upstream,” which expends more energy and emits more CO2 than if it were removed further “downstream” in the process. According to the study, facilities on the East Coast, Midwest and Gulf Coast have a greater capacity to remove sulfur downstream compared with California plants.

California refineries are also trying to squeeze out more products of value—not just gasoline, but diesel and jet fuel—from the dirtier crude, and that requires more energy and emits more CO2.

Schaefer, who directs the Environmental Integrity Project, says the “game … is to get more out of each barrel” of crude.

“In a nutshell, the refinery is determined to get the very most out of each barrel, and if it’s dirtier crude, that’s more work,” he said.
State at a crossroads

Diane Bailey, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the trend toward dirtier crude in California is alarming because once facilities are upgraded to process the heavier stuff, it won’t be easy for them to switch to other forms of crude.

“Refineries make choices on which crude feedstock to use, and that locks them in for a decade or two,” she said. “It’s a long-term investment. Crude feedstock affects carbon footprint—these refineries have tremendous control over carbon budget.”

California’s biggest stick to deter the oil industry’s move to dirtier crude—including the controversial Canadian tar sands oil—may be its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), a little known component of AB 32. While earlier laws focused on making sure that cars were more fuel-efficient or that the gasoline they burned was cleaner, the standard is a first-ever attempt to consider—and reduce—the entire carbon footprint of motor fuels.

The standard has two key parts: a biofuels policy that requires that gasoline be blended with renewable fuels to lower carbon intensity and a “high carbon intensity crude oil” program that creates incentives for refineries to process cleaner forms of crude…

In December, a federal judge in Fresno issued an injunction to halt enforcement of the standard, saying it discriminates against out-of-state fuel sources and interferes with interstate commerce. The Air Resources Board has appealed the ruling, seeking a stay to the injunction. A decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is pending…

This story was reported and written by Ngoc Nguyen at New America Media in collaboration with editors at InsideClimate News.