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1. Biofuel Policies: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul Policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions from transportation have hit major obstacles in the past few years. In effect, these policies take money from petroleum producers and give it to renewable fuel producers, creating heated political and legal battles but little effect on consumers. 2. Which California Foods You Consume Makes Little Impact on Drought-Relevant Water Usage To be relevant to California's drought, discussions of water used to produce food items should focus on the irrigation water relevant to production in California. By that measure, drought-relevant water used to produce livestock products such as beef and milk is moderate compared to crop products such as wine and broccoli. 3. Europe's Migration Crisis The European Union's 28 member nations received 1.2 million applications from asylum seekers in 2015. One reason for the upsurge in asylum applicants is that German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August 2015 announced that Syrians could apply for asylum in Germany even if they passed through safe countries en route. The challenges of integrating asylum seekers are becoming clearer, prompting talk of reducing the influx, reforming EU institutions, and integrating migrants.

California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) adopted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on April 23, 2009 requires a 10% reduction in the average greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity of the state's transportation fuels by 2020. This regulation is expected to reduce lifecycle GHG emissions per year by 20–25 million metric tons by 2020. Given available technology options, biofuels are expected to play a major role toward achieving the target. However, the rapid expansion of biofuel production may have environmental and social impacts at local, regional, and international levels. In response, many governments and national consortia have adopted sustainability requirements for their biofuel programs. The CARB is to propose a strategic plan for addressing overall sustainability provisions for the LCFS, for consideration by the Board for adoption by the end of 2011.