Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
Transportation Emissions
A Pew Stateline article tackles the challenges of reducing carbon emissions from transportation compared to electricity generation and looks at recent initiatives announced by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee aimed at decarbonizing transportation.
Pew Stateline
A reapportionment of House of Representatives will begin when the results of the Census 2020 have been finalized. A new analysis indicates that ten House seats will likely shift from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South.
Citiwire
Auto manufacturers will offer more battery and plug-in hybrid models this year, and the nation's largest state is expected to approve a new regulation requiring medium and heavy-duty truck manufacturers to sell zero-emission vehicles.
Government Technology
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) supports a multi-state proposal to mitigate tailpipe emissions that would increase gas prices and pay for transit projects in an $18 billion transportation bond. A bill has been introduced to ensure that doesn't happen.
The Boston Herald
Will a dozen East Coast states and D.C. agree to a regional plan that would likely hike gas prices through a "cap-and-invest" program to mitigate tailpipe emissions similar to what California has done for the last five years?
The New York Times
The particulate pollution released by automobile travel can carry carcinogens to the brain, according to new research.
The Guardian
Modeled on the nation's first mandatory cap-and-trade program that only targets power plant emissions, the Transportation & Climate Initiative subjects transportation fuel to a similar market-based program. It took a major step forward on Oct. 1.
The Hill
With the formal announcement by the EPA and the U.S. DOT on Thursday that the "One National Standard" rule has been issued, California's zero-emission standard, which applies to ten other states, is essentially on hold.
InsideClimate News
Late last month, the UK became the first country to commit to a legally-binding target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. A new academic research group recommends reduced auto ownership, regardless of how they are powered, to meet the target.
BBC News
When the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection adopted new rules for power plants on June 17, the Garden State becomes the tenth to participate in a cap-and-trade program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Utility Dive
California Assemblyman Phil Ting has tried unsuccessfully for the last two years to end the sale of new gas and diesel-powered passenger motor vehicles by 2040. He achieved some success by securing funds in an approved budget bill to study a ban.
San Francisco Chronicle
California has embraced electric vehicles like no other state, with success reflected in increased sales and registration data, yet transportation emissions have increased for the last four years, primarily from light-duty vehicles.
CALmatters
In a powerful opinion in The New York Times, state Senator Scott Wiener and UC Berkeley energy professor Daniel Kammen make the case that transportation emissions are rising in the Golden States because of the shortage of housing in coastal cities.
The New York Times
The U.S. Department of Energy, in partnership with the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, awarded $18 million to nine companies and universities to advance natural gas technology for trucks.
Climatewire
The bill is directed at the medium and heavy-duty trucking industry, which, along with buses, account for 90 percent of the state's toxic diesel exhaust. Diesel emissions would need to be reduced by 80 percent by 2050. Will electric trucks be ready?
San Francisco Chronicle
The sobering news comes from the Rhodium Group, a research firm that tracks CO2 emissions. The preliminary estimate is the third in two months to show an increase in 2018, attributing it to an improved economy and Trump's regulation rollbacks.
The Washington Post
Nine Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states and the District of Columbia have agreed to work together to develop a policy to price emissions from transportation, set a 'cap' on them, and invest the revenues in low carbon transportation solutions.
The Boston Globe
As California tries to stem its increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, its capital, Sacramento, may prove to be a model for other cities as it embraces electric vehicles and strategies to reduce driving.
Curbed
As climate hawks gather in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit that convenes Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown, host of the summit, is dogged by critics who can't distinguish between oil production and consumption.
CALmatters
There's good and bad news from an annual assessment on the Golden State's economy and environment. Gross domestic product per capita increases as emissions per capita decrease, with the major exception of emissions from transportation.
Bloomberg
