California on Wednesday said it would take several measures to ensure corn ethanol can help transportation fuel suppliers reach a proposed low-carbon fuel standard that is expected to be passed by the state on Thursday.

California's Air Resources Board believes that corn ethanol will play an important role in helping California achieve the goals of the (low carbon fuel standard), the state's top air quality regulator, Mary Nichols, said in a letter to General Wesley Clark, co-chair of biofuels association, Growth Energy and a former U.S. presidential candidate.

The steps California is pledging aim to assuage concerns that the state's proposal is biased against corn-based ethanol, according to the letter.

They include investigating the land use impact of all transportation fuels, harmonizing land use emissions values with future U.S. and European Union standards, and listing biofuel feedstocks that have no or negligible land use effects on carbon intensity by December of this year.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom and Steve Gorman; editing by Carol Bishopric)

California Energy