California is recieving dirtier crude than tar sand oil? Amazing, I don’t remember all the protests about this.

Some California oil fields dirtier than tar sands crude

SAN FRANCISCO — Environmentalists often call oil from Canada’s tar sands the dirtiest fuel on Earth because the complex process of extracting it spews huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the air.

But by that standard, some of the crude oil pumped in California is just as dirty. In a few cases, it’s even worse.

Several California oil fields produce just as much carbon dioxide per barrel of oil as the tar sands do, state data show. A handful of fields yield even more.

All of them are fields that have been pumped for years and now need injections of steam to squeeze out more oil. Power plants create the steam, releasing greenhouse gases in the process. The gases build up in the atmosphere, slowly warming the globe.

In the past, few people knew or cared about the carbon intensity of California crude. Now, however, that intensity is helping fuel the fight over a key California policy to combat global warming.

The state’s “low carbon fuel standard” requires fuel producers to lower the carbon intensity of the products they sell here 10 percent by 2020. To comply, oil companies probably will have to blend more advanced biofuels into their gasoline and diesel.

But California refineries also might have to stop using some of the crude pumped in the Golden State, according to an industry trade group.

That carbon-intensive oil would be exported abroad, while the state’s refineries would import more low-carbon oil to take its place. And since both the imports and exports would travel in ships — ships burning fuel and releasing carbon dioxide — the added maritime traffic could increase greenhouse gas emissions rather than cut them. The policy, in other words, could backfire.