This series of reports explores how specific sectors of the business community can drive key climate change solutions and how policymakers can facilitate those solutions. Each report results from workshop convenings that include expert representatives from the business, academic, policy, and environmental sectors. The convenings and resulting policy reports are sponsored by Bank of America and produced by a partnership of UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE).

Fueling & Financing: Addressing the Urgent Challenges Facing Electric Heavy-Duty Vehicle Deployment

Heavy duty vehicles, such as large semi-trucks and buses, disproportionately contribute to harmful air pollution, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities. They also emit significant greenhouse gases, exacerbating climate change. The solutions outlined in this report can offer a path for state policymakers to ensure that the decarbonization of heavy-duty vehicles is feasible and rapid, while addressing urgent equity, climate, and economic concerns.

View the publication page. Download the report.

A Heavy Lift: Policy Solutions to Accelerate Deployment of Zero-Emission Cargo Handling Equipment at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and Beyond

November 13, 2023, Beth Kent, Gabi Rosenfeld 

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are well on their way toward electrification, but the road to zero emissions is a long one. This new report surveys the biggest obstacles to speedy deployment and makes some recommendations for how to accelerate this important development.

View the publication page. Download PDF. 

 

Hot, Cold & Clean: Policy Solutions to Promote Equitable and Affordable Adoption of Heat Pump Retrofits in Existing Buildings

July 12, 2022, Ethan Elkind, Ross Zelen, Katie Segal

This report highlights key policy solutions to ensure that California’s push to decarbonize existing homes and buildings will support equitable deployment of electric heat pumps. View publication page. Download PDF. 

 

Data Access for a Decarbonized Grid: Policy Solutions to Improve Energy Data Access and Drive the Clean and Resilient Grid of the Future

February 22, 2021, Ted Lamm, Ethan Elkind 

This report details challenges facing optimal energy data access in California and identifies a set of high-priority policy solutions. View publication page. Download PDF. 

 

Building toward Decarbonization: Policy Solutions to Accelerate Building Electrification in High-Priority Communities

January 28, 2021 | Ted Lamm, Ethan Elkind

This report highlights a set of criteria for high-priority communities to transition buildings from natural gas to electricity. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Accelerating Engineered Carbon Removal in California

December 16, 2020 | Ethan Elkind, Ted Lamm, Katie Segal

This report identifies a suite of high-priority policy solutions for California to support new methods of actively removing carbon from the atmosphere and capturing difficult-to-mitigate emissions, including via technologies broadly known as engineered carbon removal. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Clean and Resilient: Policy Solutions for California’s Grid of the Future

June 15, 2020 | Ted Lamm, Ethan Elkind

This report focuses on policy reforms necessary to bring to scale a range of technologies available to simultaneously promote resilience and decarbonization. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Low Income, High Efficiency: Policies to Expand Low-Income Multifamily Energy Savings Retrofits

June 3, 2019 | Ethan Elkind, Ted Lamm

This report addresses structural and program challenges for the state to meet its energy efficiency goals in residential buildings. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Low-Income Multifamily Energy Savings Retrofits: Solutions to Increase Access to Incentives and Unlock Benefits

January 15, 2019 | Ethan Elkind, Ted Lamm

This report identifies policy solutions to increase access to incentives and unlock benefits from energy savings retrofits in California. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

A New Solar Landscape: Improving County-Level Landscape Planning for Utility-Scale Solar PV Facilities

November 26, 2018 | Ethan Elkind, Ted Lamm

This report offers a suite of policy solutions for incentivizing and improving landscape-level planning to meet California’s solar development goals. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Plugging Away: How to Boost Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

June 29, 2017 | Ethan Elkind

This report focuses on strategies to boost electric vehicle charging station investment and deployment. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Powering the Savings: How California Can Tap the Energy Efficiency Potential in Existing Commercial Buildings

March 31, 2016

This report focuses on strategies to make existing buildings more energy efficient, one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce emissions and save building owners money. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Planting Fuels: How California Can Boost Local, Low-Carbon Biofuel Production

December 2, 2015

This report focuses on how California can boost local, low-carbon biofuel production. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Moving Dollars: Aligning Transportation Spending with California’s Environmental Goals

February 19, 2015 | Ethan Elkind

This report focuses on how California can align transportation spending with its environmental goals. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Knowledge is Power: How Improved Energy Data Access Can Bolster Clean Energy Technologies & Save Money

January 22, 2015 | Ethan Elkind

This report focuses on how improved energy data access in California can bolster clean energy technologies and save money. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Reuse and Repower: How to Save Money and Clean the Grid with Second-Life Electric Vehicle Batteries

August 5, 2014 | Ethan Elkind

This report identifies how California can save money and clean the grid with second-life electric vehicles. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Renewable Energy Beyond 2020: Next Steps for California

October 1, 2013 | Ethan Elkind

This report makes recommendations for a new renewable energy target for 2030 that accounts for greenhouse gas emissions and tracks the state's long-term climate change goal. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

A High Speed Foundation: How to Build a Better California Around High Speed Rail

August 20, 2013 | Ethan Elkind

This report recommends a San Joaquin Valley-wide collaborative to create a plan for economic growth and environmental preservation around California’s high speed rail network. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Electric Drive by '25: How California Can Catalyze Mass Adoption of Electric Vehicles by 2025

September 1, 2012

This report makes policy recommendations for how California can catalyze mass adoption of electric vehicles by 2025​. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Harvesting Clean Energy: How California Can Deploy Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects on Appropriate Farmland

October 1, 2011 | Ethan Elkind

This report provides recommendations for California to steer the development of large-scale renewable energy facilities on agricultural land toward lands that do not deplete the state's prime agricultural and biological resources. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

All Aboard: How California Can Increase Investments in Public Transportation

July 1, 2011

This report describes how a well-funded and comprehensive public transit system in California could help the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the driving and save residents and businesses time and money. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Drops of Energy: Conserving Urban Water in California to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

May 1, 2011

This paper discusses short- and long-term measures that California should implement to overcome barriers to urban water conservation, including lack of financial incentives, insufficient data on consumption levels, lack of consumer awareness, and lack of water efficiency funding. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Plan for the Future: How Local Governments Can Help Implement California's New Land Use and Climate Change Legislation

July 1, 2010 | Ethan Elkind

This report considers regulatory, political, and financial hurdles for achieving sustainable urban development. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Saving Energy: How California Can Launch a Statewide Retrofit Program for Existing Residences and Small Businesses

May 1, 2010 | Ethan Elkind

This report considers how California can launch a statewide retrofit program for existing residences and small businesses. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Room to Grow: How California Agriculture Can Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

March 1, 2010 | Ethan Elkind

This report identifies barriers to reducing agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions and offers recommendations for policymakers and industry leaders to overcome these barriers. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

The Power of Energy Storage: How to Increase Deployment in California to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

July 1, 2010 | Ethan Elkind

This report explores how to increase energy storage deployment in California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

In Our Backyard: How to Increase Renewable Energy Production on Big Buildings and Other Local Spaces

December 1, 2009

This paper identifies actions that government leaders, private industry, and public agencies must take to address barriers to renewable energy deployment in California. View publication page. Download PDF.

 

Removing the Roadblocks: How to Make Sustainable Development Happen Now

August 1, 2009 | Ethan Elkind

This paper explores how California can accelerate the transition to renewable energy. View publication page. Download PDF.