Americans love big cars. But a new data analysis by the Economist finds the bigger the cars, the deadlier they are for pedestrians, for people driving smaller cars, and for our roads and infrastructure. I’ll be a guest on KQED Forum at 10am PT today for our In Transit series, discussing why this trend is happening.
As my co-panelist, the Economist’s Daniel Knowles, writes, “for every life the heaviest 1% of SUVs or trucks saves in America, more than a dozen lives are lost in smaller vehicles.” Regulators are starting to consider ways car design could be safer for pedestrians and other drivers. But advocates say more needs to be done.
Joining me and Daniel on the panel to discuss will be Angie Schmitt, journalist and author of “RIGHT OF WAY: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America.”
Tune in on KQED 88.5 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT!
California regulators had an opportunity this year to be a global leader on requiring airplanes to use low-carbon jet fuel. But the Air Resources Board announced earlier this month that it will back off from its earlier proposal to require jet fuel providers to decarbonize, through the agency’s landmark low carbon fuel standard program.
Why the change? The agency’s official explanation was a head scratcher, noting that jet fuel suppliers could avoid having to actually provide low-carbon fuel to airplanes by buying credits from an entity with surplus credits to sell. But that is the whole point of this market-based program: regulated entities can either reduce the carbon in their products or pay someone else to do it. Either way, the mandate is in effect and the higher cost of carbon becomes a disincentive to pay to burn it.
So what’s really going on? The potential subtext of the agency’s decision (besides the political pressure from the aviation industry against any such mandate) is fear over lawsuits. Specifically, the airline industry has asserted that California is wholly preempted by various federal laws from mandating any sort of decarbonization of jet fuel.
But the industry overstates the risk of preemption, as a forthcoming CLEE legal analysis will document. There are three federal statutes at issue when it comes to aviation and federal preemption, which our report will detail. Despite their existence, California still has runway (ahem) to regulate jet fuel.
First, the Clean Air Act governs regulation of airplane engines and associated emissions. But in this case, California would not require airlines to change their engines or meet specific emissions standards. Instead, the low carbon fuel standard solely regulates the fuels as inputs. And when low-carbon biofuels blend with fossil jet fuel (the most common type of sustainable aviation fuel), no engine modifications are necessarily required.
Second, the Airline Deregulation Act prevents states and local governments from interfering with the national aviation market, if they take action “related to” prices, routes and services. A mandate for blending lower-carbon fuels into fossil jet is on its face not “related” to these specific economic features of a national aviation market. But if the fuels requirement became stringent enough to significantly affect the prices consumers pay or where airlines schedule refueling or routes, there is likely an outer limit to what California can require on fuels without risking preemption. As a result, the board would need to craft the regulation carefully to avoid these significant impacts.
Finally, the Federal Aviation Act could preempt state laws on jet fuel if the agency set forth national requirements for low-carbon jet fuel, but to date it has not yet finalized any such rule. And in that absence, California has leeway to regulate.
(And if you’re wondering about a separate potential challenge based on the “dormant” commerce clause of the U.S. constitution, where state action creates an unjustified and significant barrier to free trade among states, such a challenge to the low carbon fuel standard program was already rejected by the Ninth Circuit in 2019, with the US Supreme Court declining to review.)
Why does the Air Resources Board’s recent change in policy matter? Aviation is arguably the hardest-to-decarbonize sector in our economy, and policy could help jumpstart solutions. No single technology otherwise currently exists to cover all of our aviation needs in the long term, despite progress on batteries, hydrogen, and potentially “e-fuels,” which combine captured carbon with zero-emission hydrogen to create a synthetic, carbon-neutral fuel that can combust in current engines just like fossil fuel.
So in the short run, the Air Resources Board had an opportunity to require airlines to blend in more low-carbon biofuels with fossil jet fuel, lowering the carbon content while sending a clear policy signal to the industry that research and investment must begin now on these longer-term solutions. This is what Governor Newsom required when he directed the Board in 2022 to “adopt an aggressive 20% clean fuels target for the aviation sector.”
With its low carbon fuel standard, California is well positioned not just to offer more carrots to the airline industry to achieve these targets, but an actual stick to ensure compliance. At the same time, a legal pathway to achieve this goal and avoid preemption remains open, as our forthcoming report will discuss in more detail. Instead, by reversing course with this decision, the state now risks a delayed departure when it comes to more sustainable air travel.
Tonight on State of the Bay: Is an education in civics essential in shaping our understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship? Tonight, we’re exploring the role of civic education in preparing our youth for the challenges they encounter on college campuses and beyond. Joining us will be:
- Dan Edelstein, faculty director of the civic, liberal and global education program, Stanford University
- Emma Humphries, chief education officer, iCivics
We’ll also hear about San Francisco’s pioneering lawsuit against some of the websites that host and create nonconsensual deepfake pornography. Joining us to discuss will be David Chiu, city attorney for San Francisco.
And finally we chat with Sean Dorsey, the Emmy-winning transgender choreographer and founder of the Sean Dorsey Dance Company.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
California has groundbreaking goals to require automakers to sell, and large fleets to purchase, zero-emission trucks and buses in increasing percentages, starting this year. But these goals will only be achievable if the state has sufficient charging infrastructure to fuel the vehicles, along with available financing to help truck owners purchase or lease them.
To address these dual needs, UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and the UCLA Law Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment are today releasing the new report Fueling & Financing: Addressing the Urgent Challenges Facing Electric Heavy-Duty Vehicle Deployment.
The report offers a suite of recommendations for policy makers and industry leaders to help address the key challenges to infrastructure deployment and financing, based on two convenings with a group of expert stakeholders. Some key recommendations include:
- The Legislature and California Public Utilities Commission could require utilities to improve energization timelines and authorize utilities to advance expenditures to fund grid upgrades for heavy-duty charging infrastructure sooner
- The Governor could create an executive level “charging working group” or “czar” with the authority to ensure coordination and hold accountable state agencies responsible for the deployment of charging infrastructure to support the heavy-duty vehicle sector
- The California Legislature and Air Resources Board could modify Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) funding to ensure more targeted uptake by fleets more readily able to electrify
- The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) and Air Resources Board could facilitate private-sector lending for heavy-duty electric vehicles and associated infrastructure
- The California IBank or Legislature could expand and expedite loan loss reserve programs to offset investor and insurer concerns about the residual value of used vehicles
By implementing these and other solutions, California leaders can ensure the transition is feasible, which is crucial to the state’s broader climate and air pollution goals. The California Air Resources Board reports that in 2021, heavy-duty trucking was responsible for over 30 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, making up roughly 10% of the state’s total emissions. The pollution from these vehicles also disproportionately affects low-income and disadvantaged communities, exacerbating public health issues and deepening environmental injustices.
Zero-emission electric versions of these vehicles are already on the road and becoming more widely available. But the California Energy Commission estimates that by 2030, the state will require 114,500 charging stations to accommodate the projected 155,000 medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks and buses. In addition, the upfront price of battery-powered heavy-duty vehicles is currently higher than their fossil-fueled counterparts, leading to the need for financial assistance for many purchasers, particularly smaller fleets.
For this transition to succeed, it will require not just technological innovation but also robust policy support and financial investment. The solutions outlined in this report can hopefully offer a path for state policymakers to ensure that the decarbonization of heavy-duty vehicles is feasible and rapid, while addressing urgent equity, climate, and economic concerns.
Fueling and Financing is the latest release from the Climate Change & Business Research Initiative, a collaboration between Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment (CLEE) and UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment. Since 2009, initiative leaders have published a series of policy papers and organized multiple events on how climate change will create opportunities for specific sectors of the business community and how policymakers can facilitate those opportunities.
To learn more, register for our webinar on the report on Thursday, September 19th at 10am PT, featuring a keynote by Dr. Steven Cliff, Executive Officer at the California Air Resources Board, followed by a panel discussion with Niki Okuk, Deputy Director of Trucks and Off-Road at CALSTART and Adam Browning, Executive Vice President at Forum Mobility.
Read the full report here.
This post was co-authored by CLEE climate fellow Shruti Sarode.
I’m back hosting State of the Bay tonight at 6pm PT after a brief summer break. First, local wildlife expert and CEO of Humane Wildlife Control Inc. Rebecca Dmytryk will join us to explain why coyotes seem to be proliferating in the Bay Area and give us tips to keep safe. If you want more, check out Living With Coyotes in the Bay Area: a discussion.
Then: what role should artificial intelligence play in the classroom? Will it help teachers teach and students learn, or will it facilitate cheating or trip users up with misinformation? We unpack the issues with:
- Gwen Hornig, eighth grade English teacher at Black Pine Circle School in Berkeley
- Dan Schwartz, Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education
- Victoria Thorp, writing instructor at San Jose State University.
Finally, local author Nina Schuyler joins us to discuss her latest short story collection, In This Ravishing World.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Tonight on State of the Bay, we’ll hear all about the upcoming Pride celebrations from SF Pride director Suzanne Ford.
Then we’ll explore why income inequality in California is reaching new extremes. Did you know that the top 1% of the wealthiest households in Silicon Valley hold 65X the wealth of the bottom 50% of households in the region? Joining us will be:
- Batya Ungar-Sargon, author of Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women
- Anji Buckner-Capone, Ed.D, investigator of the Silicon Valley Pain Index
Finally, photographer Stefan Thuilot, founder of the California Forest Project, talks about his extraordinary exhibit of California forests, before and after wildfires.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Tonight on State of the Bay, I’ll interview SFMTA director Jeff Tumlin about the new plan for the controversial Valencia St. center bike lane. How can the city keep bicyclists safe on this busy corridor?
Then we’ll have a panel discussion on the prospect of office-to-residential conversions in downtown San Francisco. Many mayoral candidates argue that turning empty offices into homes is a way to revitalize our city, but are these conversions financially feasible? Guests include Sujata Svristava from SPUR, State Assemblymember Phil Ting, and Marc Babsin of the Emerald Fund.
Finally, producer Anne Harper sits down with local author William Gee Wong about his new book Sons of Chinatown: A Memoir Rooted in China and America.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call Media Roundtable, we’ll speak with award-winning investigative journalist Nate Halverson about THE GRAB, a riveting new documentary that investigates how wealthy governments, private investors and mercenaries are working to seize food and water resources around the world, at the expense of local communities.
As climate shocks and food shortages worsen, these groups are now establishing themselves as the new OPEC, where the future world powers will be those who control not oil, but food and water resources. The documentary focuses on the impacts of communities from Arizona to Zambia.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guest? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Climate change is causing multiple types of impacts on communities, from wildfires to sea level rise. But investigative journalist Lois Parshley says climate change is also driving a dangerous increase in landslides in Alaska, and I’ll speak to her as guest host of Your Call today at 10am PT.
Up to half of downtown Juneau is at moderate to severe risk of landslides. But Juneau officials faced significant backlash from the public when they tried to adopt new city maps that outlined that risk. Parshley says that with few resources to address the problem, some residents want to ignore it all together.
What can we do to protect people in Alaska and elsewhere from climate change-induced landslides? Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guest? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On State of the Bay tonight at 6pm PT, we’ll get book recommendations and learn about the many offerings on tap at the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) this summer from Michelle Jeffers, Chief of Community Programs and Partnerships at SFPL.
Then we’ll delve into the issue of gun violence in the Bay Area with Griffin Dix, gun safety activist and author of Who Killed Kenzo?: The Loss of a Son and the Ongoing Battle for Gun Safety, and Reygan Cunningham, co-director of California Partnership for Safe Communities.
Finally, Aimee Good and Isabella Celedon from Environmental Traveling Companions will tell us about pioneering accessible outdoor adventure for people with a variety of abilities and backgrounds.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
