California Plans Major Carbon Cut in its Gasoline

Now that California is on record as mandating a 25 percent cut in the state's greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020 - a move that made headlines worldwide four months ago - leaders here are starting to lay out how they intend to hit that ambitious mark. First up: requiring transportation fuels sold in California to contain less carbon, a major greenhouse gas.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) announced Tuesday that he will issue, within weeks, an executive order that sets a new "low carbon fuel standard" in the state. Aimed at petroleum refiners and filling stations, the new standard will give them 13 years, until 2020, to cut the carbon content of the fuels they sell for passenger vehicles by 10 percent.

The intent is twofold: to stimulate investment in alternative low-carbon fuels, and to curtail actual carbon emissions from tailpipes, which the governor said account for about 40 percent of the state's total.