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Articles by Jimmy O'Dea
The Biggest Step To-Date on Electric Trucks
Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst | April 29, 2020, 9:07 am EDT Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the final draft of the Advanced Clean Trucks standard, a policy that will require truck manufacturers to make electric trucks. The proposal’s release kicks off a 30-day public comment period leading up to a Board vote on June 25-26.
The Biggest Step To-Date on Electric Trucks
Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the final draft of the Advanced Clean Trucks standard, a policy that will require truck manufacturers to make electric trucks. The proposal’s release kicks off a 30-day public comment period leading up to a Board vote on June 25-26. Under this policy, a given percentage of truck manufacturers’ sales in California must be battery or fuel cell electric vehicles beginning in model year 2024.
A Policy to Increase the Availability of Electric Trucks
Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst | October 25, 2019, 3:25 pm EDT Today marks the opening of a 45-day public comment period on a proposal (“Advanced Clean Trucks”) that would require truck manufacturers to sell electric vehicles in California. The proposal is modeled after the state’s policy requiring carmakers to sell electric vehicles in the state, a major reason California has a disproportionate number of the country’s electric passenger vehicles.
A Policy to Increase the Availability of Electric Trucks
Today marks the opening of a 45-day public comment period on a proposal (“Advanced Clean Trucks”) that would require truck manufacturers to sell electric vehicles in California. The proposal is modeled after the state’s policy requiring carmakers to sell electric vehicles in the state, a major reason California has a disproportionate number of the country’s electric passenger vehicles.
More Charging Infrastructure Coming for Electric Trucks and Buses in California
Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst | August 15, 2019, 7:18 pm EDT Great news from San Francisco today. The California Public Utilities Commission approved San Diego Gas and Electric’s (SDG&E) five-year, $107 million proposal to invest in charging infrastructure for electric trucks and buses. The proposal will result in at least 3,000 new electric trucks and buses in the San Diego region. But the utility is aiming for the budget to support closer to 6,000 vehicles.
Electric airport shuttle buses: now taking off
In the last few weeks, California passed a standard that will transition airport shuttle buses to zero-emission battery and fuel cell electric vehicles. While California established a standard for zero-emission transit buses last year, airport shuttle operators are distinct enough from public transit agencies that a different policy is fitting. The shuttle bus standard covers an estimated 950 vehicles operating at 13 airports.
Electric Airport Shuttle Buses Are Taking Off
Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst | June 27, 2019, 9:18 am EDT Today, California is expected to pass a standard that will transition airport shuttle buses to zero-emission battery and fuel cell electric vehicles. While California established a standard for zero-emission transit buses last year, airport shuttle operators are distinct enough from public transit agencies that a different policy is fitting. The shuttle bus standard covers an estimated 950 vehicles operating at 13 airports.
How can we get more electric trucks on the road?
California is considering a policy to drive sales of electric trucks — like it has done for sales of electric cars. Electric cars in California You may know that California has the largest share of electric cars in the United States. But it’s surprisingly large. Despite having 11 percent of the country’s vehicles and 12 percent of the country’s population, California has roughly 50 percent of the 1 million electric cars sold in the United States (value includes plug-in hybrids).
Self-Driving Cars and Land Use: An Interview with Becky Steckler and Nico Larco
Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst | February 25, 2019, 9:40 am EST Take a look outside. If you’re in a city, you might notice a lot of space has been devoted to roads and parking lots. Will automated vehicles (AVs) change how we use roads? Will we no longer need parking lots if we’re being shuttled around by cars that are constantly being used? Will the expected convenience of AVs create demand for even more roads? What can cities do to ensure AVs improve the livability of their communities?
Data and the Future of Mobility: An Interview with Dr. Regina Clewlow
This post is a part of a series on AVexperts I recently got to sit down with Dr. Regina Clewlow, CEO of Populus, to talk about one of the most critical, yet unappreciated, pieces to improving our transportation system: data.
California Gets one Step Closer to Zero-Emission Transit Buses
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently released a draft standard for transitioning the state’s transit buses to zero-emission battery or fuel cell technologies by 2040. This is great news for bus riders, bus drivers, local air quality, and tackling global warming emissions from the transportation sector. The proposal is the result of more than three years of stakeholder engagement and public comment.
California Gets one Step Closer to Zero-Emission Transit Buses
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently released a draft standard for transitioning the state’s transit buses to zero-emission battery or fuel cell technologies by 2040. This is great news for bus riders, bus drivers, local air quality, and tackling global warming emissions from the transportation sector. The proposal is the result of more than three years of stakeholder engagement and public comment.
If You Smell Something, Say Something: Identifying Local Natural Gas Leaks
Walking my dog around my neighborhood one day, I caught a whiff of something very clearly – gas. At first, I noted the smell but assumed it was a fleeting odor and chalked it up to urban living. But soon I realized there was nothing fleeting about it. I take the same route each day, and it became clear that specific locations persistently smelled strongly of gas. Internal alarm bells went off in my head as I calculated the amount of gas necessary to be detected outside, in open air, uncontained.
Trump Administration Declares Poverty is Over, We Can All Go Home Now
Picture it: The loading dock of the city’s largest food bank is shrouded in silence. Pallets of food are stacked inside, draped with cobwebs, waiting for volunteers who will never come to unload them. The food bank is now a relic of a bygone era—when people befallen by any number of ills needed help feeding their families. From a window above, a boy’s face appears. “Haven’t you heard?” he shouts. “Poverty is over!” Okay, okay—I know this is absurd. But does the Trump administration?
The 1 Thing Massachusetts Needs in its Clean Energy Bill
Massachusetts is at a pivotal point in its lawmaking trajectory and its clean energy path. With just one week remaining in this legislative session, where we head on clean energy is up to a polydactyl handful of lawmakers tasked with coming up with shared language in the next few days for a bill that takes the state to the next level on climate and energy. The good news is that there’s just one thing we need to see in what they come up with.
New EPA Administrator, Same Bad Idea-Car Standard Rollbacks Would be Awful
For months now, we’ve heard from a variety of sources that the Trump administration is readying a proposal which would roll back 2025 vehicle standards to 2020 levels, halting progress on reductions in emissions and oil use at the same time that transportation has become the largest source of global warming emissions in the U.S. With Scott Pruitt resigning from his post at the EPA, many had high hopes that this could signal a change in direction for the agency—unfortunately, Acting...
Coal Bailout: Low on Benefits, but High on Costs
More indications that there is no national reason for a proposed financial rescue of coal plants came out this week. Power grid operator PJM says there is no emergency; a leading coal industry representative says we don’t have any measure or understanding of what is gained in terms of reliability; and financial estimates are reported at $17 – 35 billion per year. In the energy industry, the costs of decisions are often very substantial. Economics, policy, and engineering are all relevant.
Electric vs. Diesel vs. Natural Gas: Which Bus is Best for the Climate?
Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst | July 19, 2018, 1:05 pm EDT Battery electric buses – the people’s electric vehicle – are becoming more and more common. An increasing number of transit agencies – large and small – are making announcements about purchasing electric buses and putting them into operation. The obvious benefit of electric buses is that they don’t have any tailpipe emissions.
Most Popular Energy Source? Everyone Loves Solar
A recent survey shows yet again that solar panels (and wind turbines) have a level of bipartisan popularity that would be the envy of any politician. That means we’ll have something safe to talk about at the next barbeque after all.
VW Settlement: A Needed Jolt for Electric Trucks and Buses, But More Is Needed
It has been nearly three years since the Volkswagen diesel scandal first broke. Since then, a handful of settlements have been reached, one of which provides states funding to offset the extra nitrogen oxide (NO pollution emitted by defective Volkswagens. A dozen states have recently finalized such funding plans and others are taking public comment on draft plans. These plans offset a majority of the pollution by providing financial incentives for the purchase of clean trucks and buses.
More Great News for Clean Air and Public Transit
Transit buses are community resources. They help pedestrians get around on rainy days, hot days, and cold days. They help subway riders get home when the trains stop running late at night. They help cyclists get through parts of town that aren’t bike friendly. They help crowds of people get to sporting events. They reduce the number of cars on the road in space-limited downtowns.
Leadership from California mayors on climate change, air quality, and public transit
What do the Super Bowl, national parks, and California mayors have in common? If you guessed electric buses, you’re right. This Sunday, electric buses will shuttle people to and from downtown Minneapolis, another example of this technology being adopted in cold climates. Elsewhere, Zion National Park recently completed a 3-month trial of electric buses and Yosemite recently became the first national park to purchase electric buses.
A billion dollar policy for electric vehicles that you probably haven’t heard of
Two years ago, California passed Senate Bill 350, requiring 50 percent of electricity to come from renewable energy by 2030. This was big news. Hawaii had just passed a similar bill requiring 40 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2045. There was a lot of well-deserved excitement around these renewable portfolio standards.
Tesla, Electric Semi-Trucks and Equity
Today is the unveiling of Tesla’s electric semi-truck. There’s been a lot of interest in this truck since it was referenced last summer in Tesla’s master plan. As sales indicate, Tesla makes sought-after electric cars and the potential for the company to replicate this success in the heavy-duty sector is an exciting prospect for clean air and climate change. While Tesla isn’t the first company to unveil an electric big rig, its likely the first one many people have heard about.
Puffins, Politics, and Joyful Doggedness in Maine
Puffins were nearly extinct in Maine in the early 1900s, hunted for their eggs and meat. Their re-introduction to Eastern Egg Rock in Maine in the 1970s became the world's first successful restoration of a seabird to an island where humans killed it off. Puffins were nearly extinct in Maine in the early 1900s, hunted for their eggs and meat.
Science Triumphs Over Disinformation in Initial Flame Retardant Victory
In a stunning victory for consumer safety and a powerful display of the ability of independent science to spur policy change, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted this week to ban a class of additive, polymeric organhalogen flame retardants (OFRs) that are present in many consumer products.
What’s My State Doing About Solar and Wind? New Rainbow Graphic Lets You Know
[With costs dropping and scale climbing, wind and solar have been going great guns in recent years. Shannon Wojcik, one of the Stanford University Schneider Sustainable Energy Fellows we’ve been lucky enough to have had with us this summer, worked to capture that movement for your state and its 49 partners. Here’s Shannon’s graphic, and her thoughts about it.] Do you ever wonder how much energy those rooftop solar panels in your state are contributing to renewable energy in our country?
Bringing Down the House: A Hostile Takeover of Science-Based Policymaking by Trump Appointees
The Trump administration is slowly filling positions below the cabinet officer level in the “mission agencies” of the federal government (e.g., EPA, NOAA , Interior, DOE, etc. whose job it is to implement a specific set of statutory mandates). The appointed individuals are leading day-to-day decision-making on policies from public health and safety to environmental protection to critical applied science programs.
Free Lunches in New York City Public Schools Are a Win for Kids-and Technology
This month, the New York City Public Schools announced that, starting with the current school year, all students can receive free lunch with no questions asked. That means less stigma for kids facing food insecurity, less worrying for families, and less paperwork for school districts. And it might surprise you to learn that at the heart of this victory—carried across the finish line by a group of dedicated advocates—is a fairly common application of technology.
How Freight Impacts Communities Across California
Today, UCS and the California Cleaner Freight Coalition (CCFC) released a video highlighting the impacts of freight across California. This video – and longer cuts of individual interviews here – touch on the many communities across California affected by freight. Freight is a big industry in California. Nearly 40 percent of cargo containers entering and leaving the United States pass through California ports.
Truck and Bus Legislation to Watch in California
Today’s the last day of the California legislative session. It gets hectic in Sacramento this time of year, but here are two bills I’m paying attention to that could help reduce air pollution and global warming emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.
Agroecology to the Rescue: 7 Ways Ecologists are Working Toward Healthier Food Systems
Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer in a shaded coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico. They use diverse shaded coffee as a model system to study ecological complexity and its implications for farm management and biodiversity conservation. Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer in a shaded coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico. They use diverse shaded coffee as a model system to study ecological complexity and its implications for farm management and biodiversity conservation.
LA Metro’s Opportunity to Lead
Today, Los Angeles Metro, the second largest transit agency in the United States, will vote on a plan to transition its fleet to zero-emission buses. If this sounds familiar, you’re right. It looked as though Metro would vote on this in June, but the vote got bumped to July. Leading up to last month’s vote, Joel Espino from The Greenlining Institute and I blogged about the importance of this commitment and Metro’s leadership on clean vehicles.
Trump Administration Delays Protections for Construction and Shipyard Workers, Weakens Beryllium Rule
More bad news for workers coming from the Trump administration. Last Friday (June 23), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced its proposal to “modify” (read “weaken”) protections for workers exposed to beryllium in construction and shipyards. Beryllium is a very dangerous material. It’s a carcinogen and the cause of chronic beryllium disease, a devastating illness. There’s no real rescue from this slow, incurable, and often fatal lung disease.
American Prosperity Depends on International Science: Our Border Policy Should Reflect That
Evelyn Katingi and Tsehay Gashaw of the International Livestock Research Institute working on their laptops at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Evelyn Katingi and Tsehay Gashaw of the International Livestock Research Institute working on their laptops at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo: ILRI\Zerihun Sewunet At first, the new ‘laptop ban’ sounded like a minor nuisance.
A Real Chance to Help Coal Communities-If We Fight for It
UPDATE (27 June 2017): The Natural Resources Committee has approved the Beyer amendment to strengthen the RECLAIM Act and has passed the bill out of committee. Thanks for your support, and stay tuned! On Tuesday the House Natural Resources Committee plans to vote on the RECLAIM Act, H.R.1731.
Climate Risk in the Spotlight of Chevron’s Annual Shareholder Meeting
Permian Basin oil patch near Midland, Texas. Gas and oil extraction as far as the eye can see. Photo: Barbara Briggs Permian Basin oil patch near Midland, Texas. Gas and oil extraction as far as the eye can see. Photo: Barbara Briggs Midland sits on the West Texas plains, an art deco mid-rise skyline rising over the broad landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see, dotted with pumpjacks, drill sites, and bright green-blue containment ponds.
Better Ways to Describe the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Science
It is not exactly a secret that these are challenging times for both science and democracy in the US. From attacks on science and science-based policies, to the increasing body of evidence that we may not be able to count on the federal government to protect public health and safety, the days are long, and not just because of the summer solstice.
On the Business Case for Renewables (and Why It’s so Strong)
I’m not a CEO and you won’t find me hocking financial self-help books at the airport, but there are three core tenets of business success that I hope we can agree on: keep your product affordable, minimize your exposure to risk, and keep your customers happy. If you’re an electric utility, sticking to these core tenets is particularly tricky. Fortunately, there’s one investment decision that can keep you on track: renewable energy.
When the Floods are Certain But (NOAA’s) Funds Are Not
Did you know? Arriving tomorrow and continuing over the weekend, our coasts can expect some of the highest tides and most extensive flooding of the year (we’ll see these King Tides again in July and August). The number of days with coastal flooding is expected to be 35% above normal this year, and “normal” already includes a steep increase over historic levels, courtesy of sea level rise. Well underway is an extra-active Atlantic hurricane season.
The Case Against Clovis: Why Trump’s USDA Chief Scientist Nominee Is the Wrong Choice
President Trump is dangerously close to violating the law (no, not what you’re thinking!). Recently, word began circulating that the President plans to fill the role of Chief Scientist at the Department of Agriculture (USDA) with…you guessed it, someone who has no scientific background.
7 Things We Expect to See in Rick Perry’s Unnecessary and Biased Grid Study
On April 14, Energy Secretary Rick Perry requested a 60-day “Study examining electricity markets and reliability.” The study was scheduled to be released on June 26, but it now appears it will be delayed until July.
The Summer of Floods: King Tides in June, July, August...
Here in San Francisco, we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love with art installations, walking tours, and magic buses. But artists in Charleston, South Carolina, are documenting a very different sort of season: a Summer of Floods. The National Weather Service has issued ten coastal flood advisories for Charleston, South Carolina, in the last three months and is likely gearing up to issue another.
Science Needs to Learn Lessons from the LGBTQ Rights Movement
The recent March for Science did not help public support for science. That is what the majority of Americans told a recent Pew Research Center survey and what certain news outlets are quick to put in their headlines. My response: Who cares? If my years of organizing for LGBTQ rights taught me anything, it’s that the success of the march should not be measured by the day, but by the movement it creates. I am a scientist by academic background.
Tropical Storm Cindy Brings Life-Threatening Flood Risks: Atlantic Hurricane Season Arrives Early and Strong
Several cities along the Gulf Coast have declared state of emergency in preparation for tropical storm Cindy, which will likely bring extreme precipitation and pose life-threatening flood risks. Here’s what to watch for to stay safe during this storm. The greatest danger, according to the National Hurricane Center, is that Cindy could produce life-threatening flooding across portions of the Gulf Coast.
How Many Rides Do Lyft and Uber Give Per Day? New Data Help Cities Plan for the Future
In the span of about 7 years, app-based ride-hailing (i.e. Lyft and Uber) has gone from non-existent to ubiquitous in major metro areas. But how are these services affecting important aspects of our transportation system like congestion, public transit, and vehicle emissions? The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) made a big first step last week towards answering these questions. The agency released data showing when, where, and how many rides start and end within San Francisco.
Wind Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Young by global standards, Boston is still one of the oldest cities in the United States. It has a fascinating and well-preserved history, with monuments, museums, and plaques everywhere you look. At the same time, it is a center of research and innovation, investigating the technologies that will shape our future. (Okay, I’m biased – I do love this city.) That dichotomy, respecting the past while looking towards the future, is also the story of wind power.
Note to the Department of Energy: The Grid Has Changed
The electric grid is steadily evolving to incorporate growing levels of renewable energy, and it’s saving consumers money and maintaining reliability. However, an April memo from US Energy Secretary Rick Perry is critical of this fact and seeks to protect old plants from closing due to competition. Grid reliability depends on continued investment, innovation, and modernized practices.
How Do We Get to 100% Renewable Energy? Could be Storage, Storage, Storage
As communities, companies, and even entire Midwestern utility companies move to supply 100% of electricity needs from renewable energy, the question presents itself: is this even possible? The answer, it turns out, is yes—and it’s made possible by the technical capabilities of advanced energy technologies (and especially storage). This is UCS, so let’s talk about how to get the hard stuff done.
7 States Give Pruitt an “F” in Science, Challenge EPA Over Pesticide That Harms Children
The pesticide chlorpyrifos is used on a variety of fruits and vegetables—including apples and broccoli—that millions of American moms and dads feed their kids every day. The pesticide chlorpyrifos is used on a variety of fruits and vegetables—including apples and broccoli—that millions of American moms and dads feed their kids every day.
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