California on Thursday adopted a first-ever rule to slash carbon emissions in automotive fuels, and spur the market for cleaner gasoline alternatives, after a last-ditch appeal to ethanol advocates who fought the plan.
The low-carbon fuel standard approved by the state's influential air-quality regulators was hailed by backers as an historic initiative that the rest of the United States and other countries were likely to emulate.
It marks the first attempt by government anywhere in the world to subject transportation fuels -- as opposed to the cars and trucks they power -- to limits on their potential for releasing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The measure, if it works as designed, will hasten the transformation of vehicles and the supporting transportation network built for more than a century around refined petroleum products and the internal combustion engine.
"California's first-in-the world low-carbon fuel ...