There are a lot of claims about Oregon’s low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS). Here are some basic facts:

1. In 2019, it added about 2.4 cents per gallon and is still only 15% of the way to the target.
2. The price more than doubled in just one year.
3. At this rate, the Oregon LCFS will add 14 cents per gallon by 2025.

This needs to be clarified because Vlad Gutman of Climate Solutions claimed that the LCFS in Oregon cost “less than one penny per gallon.” This number is more than a year old, and yet advocates of the LCFS continue to use it, always without mentioning that Oregon’s LCFS was only 10% implemented at the time.

To get the 2.4 cent amount, I went to the Oregon LCFS web page – the same place Vlad and others get their claim that it cost less than one cent– and used Oregon’s own formula.

In fact, that formula is above the place where Vlad got his number.

Right above it.

To ensure I did the calculation correctly, I called the Oregon LCFS office and confirmed the estimate.

There is no reason to continue to use old information without context. If LCFS proponents want to keep using that number, they are free to say, “Oregon estimates it added one cent to a gallon of gas in 2018, when the policy was only 10% of the way to the goal and the cost has increased since then.”

But, they won’t. This indicates they know they are being misleading, and simply do not care.