Transportation

Trump administration and California are on collision course over vehicle emissions rules

Meredith Hankins and Nicholas Bryner co-author legal explainer for The Conversation

California and the Trump administration are going different directions on mileage standards. AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli Meredith Hankins, University of California, Los Angeles and Nicholas Bryner, Louisiana State University The Trump administration on Aug. 2 formally announced a proposal to freeze fuel economy standards and tailpipe emission standards for new cars. In addition, it is proposing …

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Weakening Vehicle Standards Ignores Decades of Successful Innovation in Emissions Control

EPA appears poised to abdicate their responsibility to protect public health

As my colleague Ann Carlson explained, the EPA is expected to announce a catastrophic rollback this week to freeze national vehicle emission and fuel economy standards and challenge California’s authority to set their own, more stringent standards. The Trump EPA’s decision to weaken the vehicle standards despite thorough midterm reviews by both the Obama-era EPA and California that …

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Wheeler EPA Looking to Freeze Auto Standards, Revoke California Waiver

Lawsuits will follow

According to a Bloomberg report this morning, the Trump Administration, under new EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, will release a proposal later this week to freeze greenhouse gas emission and fuel economy standards at 2020 levels. The effect is that automakers will face standards of about 35 miles per gallon rather than seeing the standards increase …

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Getting to Zero Fatalities

Eliminating traffic deaths and vehicle emissions by 2050? Not as crazy as you might think.

Could we have a transportation system with zero deaths from car crashed and zero emissions? That seems utopian but it’s not as crazy as it sounds. Even if we don’t get all the way to zero, we could get much closer than you might think. In The Road to Zero, RAND researchers provide a roadmap …

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Scenarios

http://mediaprocessor.websimages.com/width/306/crop/4,0,290x220/www.communitydreambuilders.org/Strategic-Planning.jpg

We live in an uncertain world. Scenario planning can help.

When Shell Oil produced a sophisticated scenario of the path to a carbon neutral world in 2070, a lot people took notice. Shell concluded that the “relevant transformations in the energy and natural systems require concurrent climate policy action and the deployment of disruptive new technologies at mass scale within government policy environments that strongly …

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Automation Leads To Efficiency Gains But Job Losses At Southern California Port

Controversial issue to be discussed at upcoming UCLA conference on zero-emission freight at Southern California’s ports

Automation threatens to eliminate many manufacturing jobs around the world, as robots now perform factory line tasks that used to be done by humans. Now the technology is starting to be deployed through self-driving vehicles in places like ports, with similar results. It’s an issue we’ll discuss at the upcoming free UCLA/Berkeley Law conference on …

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Register Now: Toward Zero-Emission Freight At Southern California’s Ports

Free daylong conference at UCLA on Friday, June 8th will examine the prospects, pitfalls & policy needs

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach bring more goods into the U.S. than any other ports in the country. Yet together the ports are the single largest source of air pollution in Southern California. Harbor commissioners have adopted an ambitious plan to transition to cleaner fuels for goods movement in and around the …

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Why California gets to write its own auto emissions standards: 5 questions answered

Authored by Nicholas Bryner and Meredith Hankins

Rush hour on the Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, September 9, 2016. AP Photo/Richard Vogel This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Editor’s note: On April 2, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the Trump administration plans to revise tailpipe emissions standards negotiated by the Obama administration for motor …

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New Report Shows How California’s Freight System Can Achieve Sustainability Goals

Berkeley Law report stems from two-day discussion with state regulators, industry and environmental groups

California’s freight system is massive. Nearly 1/3 of all jobs in the state are in freight-related fields, and nearly 40% of all cargo moved throughout the United States enters or originates in California. The state’s seaports, airports, international border crossings and thousands of miles of rails and roads are integral to not just the state …

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Achieving Sustainable Freight in California — Free Webinar On Law & Policy Solutions

Berkeley Law event on Thursday, March 29, 10-11am will feature new report from a recent symposium

California’s freight system contributes to one-third of the state’s economy. But it is also responsible for some of its most significant emissions challenges, including toxic air pollution and greenhouse gases. To discuss solutions, the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) at UC Berkeley Law is hosting a free webinar this Thursday at 10am …

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