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No. 147: States Take the Wheel

States that relied on California's vehicle emissions standards – 17 in total – are now pivoting to alternative strategies to curtail emissions.

No. 147: States Take the Wheel
Photo by Zaptec / Unsplash

California has often set the standard when it comes to environmental impact, and they used a Clean Air Act waiver to set the most stringent vehicle emissions standards in the country.

That waiver was revoked last month, challenging the state's emissions reduction strategy. This week, we're discussing some of the ways that California – and the states following its lead – are maintaining momentum on their clean air initiatives.

If you care about the courts and want to make sure they're accountable to the people, you won't want to miss the featured job this week. It's one of the more unique nonprofits I've come across: they use data science and AI to increase transparency in our justice system. If you find yourself shopping this week and want to stay values-aligned, be sure to check out this week's resource as well. It's like a one-stop shop for making purchases you can stand behind.

~ Greg

What we're reading

California's federal exemption to set stricter vehicle emission standards was revoked through Congressional resolutions and signed by President Trump. States that relied on that precedent – 17, including California – are now pivoting to alternative strategies to curtail emissions. (Inside Climate News)

  • California is challenging the action in court, but the discussion today focuses on what states are doing to encourage the transition despite the headwinds. If I were to summarize up front, it's more carrot and less stick. The stick is still there, but it is taking different forms.
  • Part of why this matters so much is the scale of the challenge and the market power of the states that relied on the federal exemption.
    • The largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States is attributed to transportation, and the 17 states impacted by the resolutions contribute around 40% of new light-duty vehicle registrations in the United States.
    • Even though only one-third of states adopted the emissions standards, they were effectively setting those standards for everyone else because of their market power. What may be popular in California, Colorado, and Oregon is often unpopular in Texas, Alabama, and Kentucky, which is arguably one of the drivers behind the Congressional resolutions.
  • One of the ways the market movers are maintaining momentum is by increasing incentives: relying less on federal funding and more on state funding.
    • New York just announced $53 million in truck electrification vouchers, and Oregon opened applications for $34 million in grants for charging stations and zero-emission trucks. If you made it to the end of last week's newsletter, you may have noticed that Oregon is offering consumer tax incentives to purchase used EVs – that program has run out of money twice due to the popularity.
    • These aren't small pilot programs. They're multimillion-dollar commitments. In some cases, states are using money from cap-and-invest programs: increasing the cost of pollution then reinvesting that money in their environmental impact efforts.
  • States are also starting to regulate differently, like requiring fuels to meet higher standards and requiring facilities to reduce the emissions associated with their business activities.
    • Clean fuel standards are gaining traction in western states as a politically viable middle ground, requiring fuel producers to blend cleaner alternatives even if gas vehicles remain on the road.
    • The warehouse regulation approach seems like a moonshot, but it's clever. These "indirect source rules" don't regulate vehicles directly. Instead, they hold facilities accountable for the pollution they attract. It's a workaround that doesn't require federal approval, though logistics companies are pushing back – and frankly, everything is a lot easier when you have a direct solution.
  • When federal leadership disappears, states need to step up with their own resources or risk their climate commitments becoming aspirational rather than actionable. The question is whether state budgets can sustain this level of investment long term.

Job of the week

It seems like every election there are a number of candidates who run unopposed, and no position sticks out to me more in that regard than our local judges. If elections are one of our accountability measures, that means there's a rather powerful group of people who aren't subject to the same scrutiny as our other elected officials.

I use scrutiny on purpose, because I'm featuring a Senior Data Engineer, Legal Insights role from Scrutinize this week. They are a nonprofit that uses data science and artificial intelligence to bring transparency and accountability to the courts. This is a small team that got its start in 2023, but you'd have a big impact on the judicial system. You need to be based in the NYC metro area for a once-per-week onsite collaboration day, but most of the role is remote. If you have data science experience, give this one a closer look.

Community roundup

  • Unilever has cut off funding to the Ben & Jerry's foundation as they pursue a sale of their ice cream business. (Semaphor)
    • This is not the first time that Vermont's finest ice cream makers have had a run-in with their parent company over their social impact work – you may remember that they drew controversy after pulling out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory in 2021.
  • The Environmental Defense Fund announced that it had lost contact with its MethaneSat satellite launched last year. (BBC)
    • This satellite was unique because it included a set of sensors that were the most sensitive in the world, and the EDF makes their data public to help with climate efforts.
    • At $88 million, I doubt we'll see a replacement soon. If the EDF can provide enough value in the initial data, maybe additional investors will back a subsequent project.
  • It has been over 10 years since the lead contamination in Flint, MI drew national attention, and Michigan has now completed the required lead pipe replacements. (Inside Climate News)
    • There are a few caveats here. The primary one is that the replacements were completed five years behind schedule, meaning people were without clean drinking water much longer than expected. The other keyword is "required" – the settlement ignored vacant homes and people could refuse replacement, so not all pipes have been replaced.
  • The largest honeybee die-off on record occurred over the past year, and scientists have traced the issue to amitraz, or rather its ineffectiveness, which is used to eliminate virus-carrying mites. (The Guardian)
    • This reminds me of the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics, where overuse has increased the risk of superbugs. Evidently, this is not the first 'miticide' to lose its effectiveness – mites have developed resistance to four of them since the 1980s.
  • I've shared a series of partnership announcements between tech companies and nuclear energy startups because our electricity use has grown significantly. This week, we got a peek at what that growth looks like at Google: its data centers are consuming twice as much electricity now as they did in 2020. (MIT Technology Review)
    • Perhaps more concerning is that emissions are tracking closely behind: Google's emissions increased by 50% since 2019. They are supposed to get to net-zero in five years, and at this rate, I'm not sure how they accomplish that without some sort of offset strategy.

Civic corner

  • The City of Atlanta passed an ordinance last month that requires higher solar reflectance for roofs. In simpler terms, they're trying to combat the urban heat island issue where the asphalt and dark roofs trigger higher heat in urban areas due to their tendency to absorb more energy. (Grist)
    • It's not just a benefit to the city and people who live there. When buildings absorb less heat, it takes less energy to cool them down. The city expects $310 million in savings over the next 35 years. In terms of investment, it's no more expensive than installing traditional roofing products. Sounds like a big win to me.
  • I saw a couple of stories this week about an open letter to EPA head Lee Zeldin and members of Congress that took issue with the direction of the agency. Since the letter was published, the EPA has retaliated by placing 139 employees on administrative leave while they investigate if any government systems or work time were used to support the petition. (Electrek & Inside Climate News)
    • This predates the Supreme Court ruling this week that will make it easier for the Trump Administration to resume layoffs. It has been a while since those layoffs and associated protests have commanded national headlines. I don't think the EPA letter will be the last example of resistance we'll see in the coming months.
  • California has rolled back the California Environmental Quality Act in an effort to address its housing shortage. The changes remove some of the barriers to development, like environmental review and legal obstacles, that made it difficult to build in the state. (NYT)
    • The history here is interesting. CEQA was originally signed into law by Ronald Reagan when he was Governor of California, and it was originally intended for government projects. That was later expanded to private projects through a court decision, and those projects became easier to challenge by pointing to CEQA.
    • In general, we need to find a balance between environmental and human protections – that balancing point is always up for discussion, and today, it tipped towards humans.
  • If you want to see a bunch of great environmental impact solutions in one place, the New York Times has been running a series called 50 States, 50 Fixes where, as the name implies, they've picked one environmental solution in each state to feature. (NYT)
    • Some highlights are wildlife crossings in Colorado, geothermal heating in Idaho, an environmentally-focused soccer (er, football) club in Vermont, and car-free neighborhoods in Arizona.

Hot job opportunities

Resource of the week

A significant number of Certified B Corps fall in the consumer goods category, and no matter what you're looking to purchase, there's a decent chance you'll find a social impact company with better credentials than the big box stores. People want to support businesses that align with their values – it's not just about the product or service but the team around it.

This week, I came across DoneGood, which is like a one-stop shop for values-aligned online shopping. I immediately recognized a number of brands I've featured in the newsletter or supported with a purchase, and the website makes it easy to filter down to brands that matter to you: B Corps of course, but also Fair Trade, women- and minority-owned businesses, Climate Neutral, and more. We're a ways off from the gift-giving season, but I'm definitely going to bookmark this one.

Test your knowledge

I asked you about the origins of the Environmental Protection Agency last week, which got its start under President Nixon in 1970. That's a relatively short runtime for an agency that has had such a profound impact on our quality of life since then.

I know the EPA is going through some challenges at the moment, but part of why I wanted to revisit its history is because it's grounded in increased public awareness of environmental issues. The more tangible we can make that impact, the likelier we are to see the EPA's priorities change in the future.

I used a lot of public transportation on my trip to San Francisco a few weeks ago – you can't miss an opportunity to ride the cable cars after all – and the buses were packed most of the time. Any guesses on how impactful public transportation can be on our roads?

How many cars can the average bus replace?

Email me your guess, and I'll send one lucky winner a couple of One Work stickers!

I saw Interstellar at the historic Hollywood Theatre in Portland last week. I've had the theatre on my to-do list since moving to the area, and it didn't disappoint. The movie was better than I remembered – Earth is becoming unsustainable for human life and we have to leave it behind, which hits pretty close to home when you consider our recent discussion of natural disasters.