More than 100 of the state’s leading climate policymakers, modelers and stakeholders gathered on the UC Davis campus February 23 to review the current status of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) modeling for the California and examine pathways for achieving the state’s climate goals.

The California Climate Policy Modeling Dialogue featured representatives from every major state agency involved in climate policy, legislative representatives, academics, industry and NGO leaders from across the state and was co-organized by Cliff Rechtschaffen of the governor’s office,  Michael Gibbs of the California Air Resources Board and ITS-Davis Researcher Sonia Yeh.

They came together to help lay the scientific foundation for policymakers who are now looking beyond the current 2020 emissions reduction timeframe. Gov. Jerry Brown in January outlined 2030 climate and energy goals for California, including:

• reducing today’s petroleum use in cars and trucks by up to 50 percent;
• increasing the portion of electricity generated using renewable resources to 50 percent;
• doubling the energy efficiency achieved in existing buildings, and making heating fuels cleaner;
• reducing emissions of methane, black carbon and other potent pollutants across industries; and
• managing farm and rangelands, forests and wetlands so they can store carbon.

In the event’s introductory remarks, Cliff Rechtschaffen, a senior advisor to Brown, referenced the governor’s inaugural address: “As the governor said, climate change is the greatest existential threat that we face in the world today. Nothing threatens the long-term health and prosperity of California more than climate change.”

 Acknowledging the “ingenuity and talent” of the people assembled in the room, Rechtschaffen talked about the progress being made in California on renewable energy procurement, energy efficiency and the cap-and-trade program.

“Governor Brown and California are demonstrating to the rest of the world that we can fight climate change and have a healthy economy,” said Rechtschaffen, while acknowledging that we have to do “much more. The sooner we act the greater the climate benefits, and the less steep of a hill we have to climb.” To that end, this gathering responded in part to the governor’s call for active collaboration with business, academics, entrepreneurs and local government; commitment to innovation, research and imagination; and pragmatic caution.

“One of the critical first steps of any modeling effort is to consider the range of questions that we seek to answer,” explained UC Davis’ Yeh. “How might California’s energy system evolve by 2030 and 2050? What assumptions drive these results? What are the key uncertainties? How can models shed lights on the scale of challenges we are facing in terms of new technology and infrastructure and what policies are needed to address these changes?”

Yeh also emphasized the need to “identify ways to make the models and model findings useful and accessible and more transparent to policymakers and stakeholders.”

The modeling workshop discussion considered:

• achievable GHG emission reductions through 2030;
• scenarios for technologies and actions required economy-wide and from individual sectors that may enable deep reductions in state GHG emissions;
• costs and benefits of reducing emissions, including contributions to local air quality improvements; and
• potential aggregate and distributional impacts of GHG mitigation policy options on the State/regional economy.

As Rechtschaffen noted, “We need to find out and learn what is technically feasible and doable, the impact on the grid, the best sequencing. That’s what modeling can help inform.”

To view the agenda and presentations from the California Climate Policy Modeling Dialogue click here.

The February 2015 gathering was the second meeting of the California Climate Policy Modeling Dialogue. View the summary materials from the December 2013 forum here.

Photos: (Top) California Air Resources Board Executive Officer Richard Corey delivers the luncheon address. (Mid) Part of the big turnout at the CCPM Dialogue workshop. Photo credit: Gene Ang.

Amy Myers Jaffe’s passion for her job originated in the front seat of a 1973 Oldsmobile Sedan.

The energy expert was a child during the 1973 oil crisis. There was only one gas station in her hometown of Swampscott, Massachusetts, near Boston, and she spent many early morning hours in the car with her father, waiting in long lines to fuel up.

“I would get up at 5 a.m. twice a week and sit with him in line to make sure we’d have enough gas for the week,” Myers Jaffe says. “It made a huge impression on me.”

Myers Jaffe is now the executive director of energy and sustainability for UC Davis’ Graduate School of Management and Institute of Transportation Studies. Her research helps bring together policymakers and leaders in the technology, oil and gas sectors to explore business models that can achieve clean energy in a commercially sustainable way.

Success, according to Myers Jaffe, is identifying incentives for businesses to make choices that are profitable and best for the public good. She’s hopeful that new technology and the diversification of fuel use could smooth the way.

“I would like to see the oil industry be part of the solution instead of part of the problem,” she says.

Myers Jaffe is glad to be at a campus unique in its zero net energy commitment, where it’s easy to practice what she preaches. She starts each day at UC Davis by plugging in her Ford C-MAX at an electric vehicle charging station. She teaches business courses in sustainability metrics and energy 101, and often helps students prepare for job interviews in the sustainable energy industry.

“This generation is going to change the things that really need to change, so it’s rewarding to hear from former students that they’ve found my class useful.”

Amy Myers Jaffe is the lead author on Exploring the Role of Natural Gas in U.S. Trucking, a February 2015 report released from the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis and Rice University. Read the report’s highlights and listen to an audio clip from Jaffe.

Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Sacramento, an organization dedicated to furthering the careers of women in the transportation industry, awarded two UC Davis students with scholarships at the annual WTS-Sacramento Awards and Scholarship dinner. The event recognizes the accomplishments of women in the transportation industry, while also supporting promising students through scholarships and awards.

Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) graduate student Kalai Ramea and undergraduate Melody Lin were each awarded scholarships on January 22 that will help advance their careers in transportation and energy.

Kalai Ramea, Ph.D. candidate in Transportation Technology and Policy received the Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship for her research into consumer’s vehicle behavior.  The scholarship honors Overly for her 15 years of service to WTS.

In the TTP graduate program, Ramea studies different consumers groups, and the effect that those groups have on the direction of the automotive industry. Formerly a transportation engineer at a consulting firm, Ramea is well versed in intelligent transportation systems projects and high-level policy analysis. She conducts various analyses of policies to determine how the public sector can encourage and influence greener vehicles choices by consumers.

“Organizations like WTS are extremely important especially at this pivotal stage where woman are breaking all kinds of glass ceilings in the transportation sector, whether it’s in construction, design, or academia,” said Ramea. “I feel extremely grateful and honored to receive this award, and it will provide me with the resources needed to travel to various conferences and present my research.”

Melody Lin received the Sharon D. Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship. Named in honor of the late chief executive officer of AC Transit in Alameda-Contra Costa County, California, this scholarship aims to foster the development of young undergraduate women’s careers in the transportation field.

Lin, a UC Davis senior, is a double major in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning (EPAP) and International Relations. In these degree programs, she specializes in advanced policy analysis and global environmental health respectively, and is particularly interested in bike-sharing programs, pedestrian-friendly downtown areas, mixed-use zoning, and transit network fluidity.

“WTS is an amazing organization filled with fantastic people in the transportation industry. It’s wonderful that WTS encourages and gives women the opportunity to learn about professions in the transportation field,” said Lin. “I’m extremely grateful for being able to receive this scholarship, and it has me excited for my role as a transportation planner in the years to come.”

Photo (left to right): Research Engineer Sonia Yeh, Kalai Ramea, and Melody Lin. Photo courtesy of WTS-Sacramento.

The UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies is researching the feasibility of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the market. 

At the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), which was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times, researchers have reached optimistic conclusions about the viability of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), a zero emission vehicle technology that is now beginning to appear in California. In recent years there has been increased effort worldwide to develop inexpensive cars, trucks and SUVs that run on hydrogen fuel cells and build a sustainable and cost-effective infrastructure to support them.

“Hydrogen fuel cell cars offer consumer value similar or superior to today’s gasoline cars,” UC Davis professor of environmental science Joan Ogden to the LA Times. “The technology readily enables large vehicle size, a driving range of 300 to 400 miles, and a fast refueling time of three to five minutes.”

The biggest obstacle in convincing people to buy FCVs is the current lack of hydrogen fueling stations. However, those fueling stations are unlikely to be built without a critical mass of FCVs to provide business. Researchers at ITS-Davis acknowledge that it’s a “chicken and egg dilemma,” where neither cars nor stations can realistically be implemented without each other.

“The question isn’t whether fuel cell vehicles are technically ready: They are,” said Ogden to the LA Times. Ogden is the director of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways program at ITS-Davis. “But how do you build confidence in hydrogen’s future for investors, fuel suppliers, automakers, and, of course, for consumers?”

ITS-Davis researchers have determined that, if given an initial investment of $100 to $200 million, fuel cell vehicles are poised to compete with gasoline cars in price. Some recent developments have helped make FCVs more practical, including $46 million from the State of California to construct 28 hydrogen fueling stations, which will decrease costs for building stations and vehicles, and increased natural gas availability for hydrogen fuel production.

Several car manufacturers, such as Toyota, Honda and Hyundai, are getting ready to roll out FCVs in 2015. And in what was called a “milestone in the commercialization” of hydrogen vehicles, in January, a station at Cal State L.A., just east of downtown, became the state’s first to sell hydrogen by the kilogram to the public, with more fully operational stations soon to follow around California.

The LA Times article mentioned more ways to make FCVs appealing to a consumer market include tax exemptions and access to carpool lanes for FCV drivers. Similar government-backed initiatives are underway in Germany and Japan as well.

“We seem to be tantalizingly close to the beginning of a hydrogen transition,” said Ogden. “The next three to four years will be critical for determining whether hydrogen vehicles are just a few years behind electric vehicles, rather than decades.”

Read the full LA Times article. http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-fuel-cell-vehicles-davis-20140814-story.html

View a video, listen to a webinar, and read a blog and Joan’s Ogden’s full research study on hydrogen FCVs. http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/blog-post/the-hydrogen-transition-this-time-for-real/

Learn more about the Institute of Transportation Studies. http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/

Anthony Eggert, Executive Director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy, is leaving for a senior position at a private foundation, it was announced on January 21, 2015.

Eggert has served as head of this innovative and influential institute since its founding in 2011.

With Eggert’s departure, serving as Acting Director for the Policy Institute will be James Bushnell, Associate Professor of Economics at UC Davis. Bushnell was Director of the Bio-based Industry Center at Iowa State University from 2009 to 2011 and Research Director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley from 2000 to 2009.

In California, the West, and nationally, the Policy Institute plays a leading role in leveraging university expertise to inform energy, climate, and transportation policies—acting as a bridge between scientific researchers and decision-makers. Under Eggert’s leadership, the Policy Institute has engaged in all aspects of the policy process: understanding the needs of policymakers to inform research questions and projects, proactively delivering accessible and timely research findings to legislative and administrative leadership and staff, and undertaking analysis and evaluation to improve existing policies.

“Anthony Eggert has been highly effective at informing policy on sustainable transportation, clean energy and climate adaptation,” said Dan Sperling, Director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation studies and Faculty Chair of the Policy Institute Steering Committee. “Anthony was instrumental in building and guiding the institute from its inception and promoting unprecedented collaboration between government, industry, NGO’s, and academia. We are indebted to Anthony.”

“He laid the groundwork for the Policy Institute to play an even more influential role in the future,” added Sperling.

Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board and Policy Institute Advisory Board member, also reflected on Eggert’s time at the Institute: “Anthony Eggert established the UC Davis Policy Institute as a valued resource for climate and energy leaders in California and around the country. Through a variety of dialogs and programs with practitioners, Anthony highlighted the opportunities for leading-edge research to inform the decision-making process. There is no question that California’s climate policy is better as a result.”

Eggert previously served as an appointee of Governors Brown and Schwarzenegger in several senior policy positions, as a commissioner for the California Energy Commission, deputy secretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency, and senior advisor to the Air Resources Board. In private industry he worked as an engineer and manager for Ford Motor Company. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Wisconsin – Madison and his master of science degree in transportation technology and policy from UC Davis.

Eggert commented on his time at UC Davis: “Through partnership with the top researchers on campus and beyond, support from campus leadership, and guidance from our faculty and advisory board, we were able to quickly build an Institute that had a positive and lasting impact on policy. I am very fortunate to have been part of the team to make this happen and I look forward to watching the Institute as it evolves and grows in the future.”

Eggert will be joining the ClimateWorks Foundation in San Francisco as a Program Director leading their work on transportation policy.

As it enters its fourth year, the Policy Institute’s work continues under the leadership of Bushnell as Acting Director. A search for an Executive Director is underway.

Dan Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), has been appointed the 2015 chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Executive Committee, which provides independent scientific advice to the nation on transportation issues.

The appointment was announced at the 94th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, held January 11-15 in Washington, D.C. and attended by 12,000 transportation professionals from across the United States and abroad. The Transportation Research Board is a major division of the National Research Council, the private, nonprofit institution that serves as the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and as an independent adviser to the U.S. government.

“The Institute of Transportation Studies is a global leader in sustainable transportation, and this appointment is a testament to Dan’s standing as a researcher and innovator in his field,” said UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. “I am sure that Dan’s leadership of the Transportation Research Board’s Executive Committee will serve as a tremendous boon for innovation in transportation across the country.”

The executive committee Sperling will chair for the coming year oversees the board’s programs and activities, engaging more than 7,000 engineers, scientists, and transportation researchers and practitioners from academia and the private and public sectors, including state departments of transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The board’s mission is to promote innovation and progress in transportation through objective research.

“The Transportation Research Board is hugely influential as the focal point of transportation research activities in the United States and the world,” said Sperling. “I am honored to lead it and look forward to helping broaden its engagement with environmental and other sustainability issues.”

One of the world’s most renowned transportation experts, Sperling founded ITS-Davis in 1991 and has led it to international prominence—building strong partnerships with industry, government and the environmental community, and connecting research with public policy and outreach.

In 2013, ITS-Davis was selected in a national competition to lead the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, a two-year, $11.2 million research, education and outreach consortium of six universities for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Located in UC Davis’ West Village, the nation’s largest planned zero-net-energy community, the Institute of Transportation Studies has more than 150 faculty, staff, and student researchers. The affiliated UC Davis Transportation Technology and Policy Graduate Program offers interdisciplinary master’s and doctoral degrees in sustainable transportation, with more than 225 of its alumni currently serving as leaders in government and industry.

Sperling is a professor of civil engineering, and environmental science and policy at UC Davis.  He is recognized as a leading international expert on transportation technology assessment, energy and environmental aspects of transportation, and transportation policy.

In the course of Sperling’s distinguished career, he has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress and multiple state legislatures, and has authored or co-authored more than 200 technical papers and 12 books, including “Two Billion Cars” (Oxford University Press, 2009) — which earned him an appearance on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart.  In 2013, he received the Blue Planet Prize from the Asahi Glass Foundation, described as the Nobel Prize for environmental sciences. He has served as a board member of the California Air Resources Board since 2007, where his chief responsibilities are implementation oversight of the state’s climate change, alternative fuels, vehicle travel and land use, and zero emission vehicle programs.

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At the 94^th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Sperling also delivered the TRB 2015 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lecture, “The Emerging Transformation of Mobility, Vehicles, and Fuels.”

The UC Davis Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) graduate program is the subject of a new highly engaging video—featuring professors, students, and alumni telling the story of an academic program that provides a “front row seat” to California and the planet’s greatest challenges in mobility and transportation.

The video provides an inside look from students pursuing masters and doctoral degrees in sustainable transportation, as well as from the faculty and researchers who mentor and partner with them on their education. Also featured are first-hand accounts by TTP alumni who have gone on to successful transportation sector careers at the U.S. Department of Energy, BMW, and the California Air Resources Board.

TTP is an interdisciplinary graduate program combining transportation, energy, environmental policy, and economic curricula through a diverse selection of courses. TTP offers students a multifaceted skillset, one suited to train leaders ready to immediately make a positive impact on technology and policy in the real world.

TTP is hosted by the renowned UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), a global leader for study and research on sustainable transportation. This year, ITS-Davis was selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation to lead the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, a six-university research, education, and outreach consortium.

In the video, ITS-Davis Director and Professor Dan Sperling describes why the TTP graduate programs is special:

“Number one, we have a very strong focus on interdisciplinary education and research. Number two, we really focus on engagement with the outside world.  Number 3, our offices here are in West Village, the largest net zero energy community in the country. What that mean is that we’re living the vision of sustainable transportation and sustainable energy.”

Click here to view the five-minute video, “The UC Davis Transportation Technology and Policy Graduate Program:  What You Need to Know.”

The priority deadline for applying to the TTP graduate program is fast approaching—January 15—with the general deadline on April 1.

Click here for more info on applying to TTP.

For further information on the TTP graduate program, contact:

Annemarie Schaaf:

(530) 752-0247

Aschaaf@ucdavis.edu

UC Davis alumnus Nic Lutsey has received a prestigious national award for “Excellence in Automotive Policy Analysis” from the global engineering association SAE International.

A program director in the Washington D.C. office of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), Dr. Lutsey was honored with SAE International’s Barry D. McNutt Award for his expansive research and writing on light duty vehicle efficiency, technology, and regulation. The award recognizes the span of his output, from his days as graduate student and post-doctoral researcher in the UC Davis Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) Graduate Program consulting with the California Air Resources Board, to his work with ICCT.

Lutsey received his master’s degree in 2003 and his doctorate in 2008 from the TTP Graduate Program. He has co-authored 19 peer-reviewed journal articles and dozens of reports on technology potential, federal and state regulatory design, industry compliance, and cost effectiveness for vehicles and alternative fuels.  In California, as a postdoctoral researcher at ITS-Davis, he conducted technical analysis for the California Air Resources Board regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.

“It’s a great honor to be listed with the other people who have won the award,” said Lutsey. “I’ve cited David Greene and John German, and other previous winners many times in published reports. They’ve made a lasting impact, and to be mentioned along with them is very exciting to me.”

UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) Director Dan Sperling, who was his graduate advisor, lauded Lutsey as an outstanding scientist and researcher, highly deserving of national recognition. “Nic is a brilliant and productive scholar who has been having a big impact on automotive policy ever since his graduate student days”, said Sperling. “We’re very proud of Nic and all that he has accomplished.”

Today, Lutsey directs ICCT’s global heavy-duty vehicle, fuels, and electric vehicle work and co-leads the international non-profit organization’s work in the United States.  With federal and California state light duty passenger regulation now well established, Lutsey has shifted his focus to the “next big thing.” At the moment, this means providing the best data and analysis for heavy-duty truck regulations in the U.S. and elsewhere and helping inform policymakers on the future transition to electric vehicles.

Lutsey said ITS-Davis positioned him very well for his ongoing work technology and policy work today. At ITS-Davis, he said, you get the “technical chops from rigorous coursework” as well as “real-world relevant research experience. You learn to ask the right questions from a lot of different angles and how to concisely distill, deliver, and brief on massive amounts of scientific analysis,” he said.

Lutsey will receive the Barry D. McNutt Award for Excellence in Automotive Policy Analysis at the SAE 2015 Government/Industry Meeting in Washington, D.C. in January.

The global association SAE International is a “knowledge source” for the engineering profession, uniting more than 148,000 engineers and technical experts and driving knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries.

What better way to begin your enrollment as a UC Davis Transportation and Technology Policy (TTP) graduate student than on a transportation adventure with your fellow students?

This year’s entering students joined their upper-level classmates in the first ever “Mobility Quest,” a five-day, student-led trip through various progressive transportation and energy locations on the West Coast. This year’s event was held just before the start of the fall quarter.

Mobility Quest is designed as an off-campus orientation and travel experience to introduce entering graduate students to the region’s wide variety of transportation, environmental, economic and policy issues. Students are able to see firsthand the challenges that government agencies and businesses face when implementing sustainable transportation practices in a real world context. This is also an excellent time for fellow graduate students to get to know one another, whether they are newly enrolled or veterans of ITS-Davis transportation-related programs.

In this year’s inaugural Mobility Quest, the ITS-Davis group visited the California Air Resources Board and the Siemens USA light rail manufacturing facility in Sacramento, Crater Lake National Park, various locales in Portland, and Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico.

As part of the Climate Friendly Parks Program, Crater Lake stands as one of the prime examples of implementing transportation infrastructure reform. During their visit, the group viewed many progressive transportation planning changes in action. Led by park management assistant Scott Burch, they learned about the park’s considerations for the impact of vehicle emissions. Through alternative mobility options like trollies, a robust system of buses, and bike paths, park management has deemphasized reliance on driving conventional vehicles. Also contributing to this new way of thinking are structural changes, like closing roads off to traffic and implementing single-way lanes instead of traditional two-way lanes. Crater Lake’s success in maintaining the delicate balance of great accessibility within the park while transitioning to a more sustainable set of transportation infrastructure and policies made the visit a scenic and relevant learning experience.

The Mobility Quest group continued their trip further north to Portland, Oregon. As one of the most bike-friendly cities in the nation, Portland incorporates many different aspects to city planning and policy implementation. The team met with Mia Birk, vice president of Alta Bicycle Share, an urban mobility company dedicated to improving bike sharing systems in urban environments.

“In California, we tend to think more of bike infrastructure planning rather than bike share plans. Coming to Portland allowed us to view and consider different avenues and takes on the situation that we don’t normally see,” said ITS-Davis Ph.D. candidate and lead Mobility Quest coordinator, Jeff Kessler.

The group met with Tara Goddard, Ph.D. student/researcher at Portland State University, and former bike and pedestrian coordinator for the City of Davis. Together with Goddard, the group biked throughout the city of Portland, viewing the innovative bike infrastructure that the city has implemented, such as a new “Intelligent Transportation System” sensor. A blue light signals to bike riders that they’ve been detected by the system, saving them from having to manually press a crosswalk switch, and allowing for safer navigation through intersections for cars, bikes, and pedestrians.

Before returning to Davis, the group made a stop at Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico. Known for its emphasis on sustainable, low-footprint operations, Sierra Nevada leads by example through its commitment to zero-waste action. Students toured the facility, viewing a variety of the brewery’s innovative efficiency initiatives. Home to one of the largest privately owned solar arrays in the U.S, and the only brewery to house hydrogen fuel cells for energy, Sierra Nevada is a prime example of eco-friendly business practices. “Small businesses like Sierra Nevada are innovators that are voluntarily addressing sustainability endeavors, becoming leading examples for others,” said ITS-Davis Ph.D. candidate Christina Zapata.

On a post-trip survey, 100 percent of the students responded positively, saying it served as a valuable learning and bonding experience. With the positive feedback in mind, Kessler is now turning his attention to next year’s event.

Although Mobility Quest is a brand new initiative, Kessler hopes it will become an annually recurring event that energizes and engages new TTP students as they begin their graduate academic career.

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Would you like to contribute to a future Mobility Quest through Friends of ITS-Davis? Click here.

For further information about Mobility Quest—or if you are interested in having TTP students visit your institution to talk about the graduate program— contact Jeff Kessler at jkessler@ucdavis.edu.

For an overview of the TTP graduate program, and an online application and contact information, click here.