(a) The Legislature finds and declares that overdependence on the production, marketing, and consumption of petroleum based fuels as an energy resource in the transportation sector is a threat to the energy security of the state due to continuing market and supply uncertainties. In addition, petroleum use as an energy resource contributes substantially to the following public health and environmental problems: air pollution, acid rain, global warming, and the degradation of California’s marine environment and fisheries.

(b) Therefore, it is the policy of this state to fully evaluate the economic and environmental costs of petroleum use, and the economic and environmental costs of other transportation fuels, including the costs and values of environmental impacts, and to establish a state transportation energy policy that results in the least environmental and economic cost to the state. In pursuing the “least environmental and economic cost” strategy, it is the policy of the state to exploit all practicable and cost-effective conservation and improvements in the efficiency of energy use and distribution, and to achieve energy security, diversity of supply sources, and competitiveness of transportation energy markets based on the least environmental and economic cost.

(c) It is also the policy of this state to minimize the economic and environmental costs due to the use of petroleum-based and other transportation fuels by state agencies. In implementing a least-cost economic and environmental strategy for state fleets, it is the policy of the state to implement practicable and cost-effective measures, including, but not necessarily limited to, the purchase of the cleanest and most efficient automobiles and replacement tires, the use of alternative fuels in its fleets, and other conservation measures.

(d) For the purposes of this section, “petroleum based fuels” means fuels derived from liquid unrefined crude oil, including natural gas liquids, liquefied petroleum gas, or the energy fraction of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) or other ethers that is not attributed to natural gas.

(Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 912, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2002.)