Updates will align the alternative fuel regulations with CARB's low- emission vehicle (LEV) program, said staff engineer Leslie Crowell. Speaking at a workshop in Sacramento, Calif., last week, she said the fuels are necessary to achieve the emissions benefits associated with alternative fuel vehicles.

The rules ensure that alternative fuels are publicly available to motorists. The regulations require owners and lessors of retail gasoline stations to equip some number of their stations to dispense a particular alternative clean. The requirement is triggered when 20,000 or more vehicles are certified in California to a low-emission vehicle standard using the fuel. At that point, the number of required clean fuel outlets is determined.

The rules will be updated, in part, to reflect the growing impetus behind hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Crowell said. The changes that will be made to include hydrogen will center on definitions, stations and throughput.

Stakeholders suggested the regulations were originally designed to get some niche fuels into the marketplace. Contrast that with the current environment surrounding hydrogen, where there is an "unprecedented" level of cooperation among participants - "as hard as it is to imagine the auto and energy industries cooperating, " said one commenter. "Given that environment, it is disappointing to see CARB consider a mandate in this area."

An oil industry commenter charged CARB promoted alternative fuels "just because they're alternatives." There's little consideration given to the air quality impacts, he said. Clean gasoline and diesel can meet the challenge of alternatives, he stated, adding that industry does not want to be forced to build stations to support fuels that are not as clean as what's already out there.

Don't count on Board to sunset the rule anytime soon, replied Dean Simeroth, chief of the Criteria Pollutants Branch. Instead, CARB recognizes the need to update the regulations in a way that puts it in sync with what's happening among industry participants. "What we're trying to do is move the regulations to be more compatible with the way the fuel market has evolved," he said.

But Simeroth said he is not opposed to scratching regulations and would consider "exploring concepts" that would not involve a mandate. "Mandates get so complicated so fast, they're hard to enforce," he told attendees.

That's especially true in a state the size of California, which has some 14,000 retail stations. "It's hard to design a system that will satisfy the driving public," he said. "We've had over 100 years to get where we are today. You can't do that with a mandate."

Simeroth anticipates a broader discussion of the matter, given Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ® proposal for a "hydrogen highway."