Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (current project)
Researcher: Dan Coffee
With funding from the state legislature for UCs, the UCLA Institute for Transportation & LCI are researching various questions relating to transportation decarbonization in California. LCI’s current focus is analyzing the economic and labor impacts of hydrogen infrastructure buildout to support clean transportation. Other subjects to cover include zero-emissions vehicles, land use, infrastructure, hydrogen fuel, vehicle policy, and environmental justice implications.
Researchers: Dan Coffee, Aditya Voleti, Joshua Segui, Allison Yang, J.R. DeShazo, and Weilong (David) Kong
This technical report reviews the underlying analysis, data, and economic input/output modeling that supported our conclusions in the 2021 report Driving California’s Transportation Emissions to Zero. The researchers find that transportation decarbonization and the widespread adoption of zero-emission vehicles will spur the creation of new multi-billion dollar industries, result in tens of billions of dollars in annual consumer savings, and create hundreds of thousands of full time-equivalent jobs, while also driving significant contractions in some industries focused on servicing fossil fuel-burning vehicles.
UCLA researchers: Daniel Coffee, JR DeShazo, Joshua Segui, Aditya Voleti, Allison Yang
Led by the Institute of Transportation Studies, this study focuses on strategies to transition California’s transportation system to a carbon-neutral basis by 2045. The researchers identify scenarios, assumptions, and related strategies, tools, options, tradeoffs, and benefits for areas where action can be taken now, as well as where additional actions are needed in the future.
LCI published the first study to estimate the potential employment impacts of building decarbonization in California. Building decarbonization requires both energy efficiency improvements and reducing the use of fossil fuels in residential and commercial buildings by switching to electricity powered by renewable energy. The California Energy Commission and Air Resources Board have identified building decarbonization as a core strategy to achieve the state’s long-term climate goals. The study found that the California’s transition to all-electric buildings could support more than 100,000 jobs annually for 25 years, after accounting for losses in the fossil fuel industry.
This research was covered in the Los Angeles Daily News and a post by the Sierra Club, among others.
A series of studies assessed the economic and employment benefits of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP’s) energy efficiency programs. A common finding across the investment periods, and two similar but differing sets of LADWP energy efficiency programs, is that the investments on average supports more local jobs per dollar of investment than the oil and gas sector, a common benchmark for comparing investments in energy resources.
The first report informed an industry-leading energy efficiency commitment announced by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014. This policy sets a 15 percent reduction in electricity consumption in Los Angeles through energy efficiency measures.
Our follow-up report assesses recent progress. This study, released in 2019, found that LADWP’s suite of energy efficiency programs continue to perform well because they generate energy cost savings for LADWP customers, leverage co-investment from residents and businesses, and rely heavily on local labor for program activities.
LCI completed the first-ever study of the statewide employment outcomes from California Climate Investments. Researchers analyzed the first $2.2 billion in California Climate Investments that the state Legislature appropriated to 11 state agencies between 2013 and 2016, which invested the funds in 29 different programs. Many of these programs also induce customers, businesses, and government entities to contribute matching funds, which we also analyzed. We then estimated the number of jobs supported by each of the 29 programs, describing the distinct economic sectors and industries involved.
Our analysis reveals that the $2.2 billion in California Climate Investment appropriations support about 19,700 jobs in California. The $6.4 billion in induced co-investment supports an additional 55,900 jobs. When added together, appropriated funds and induced co-investment support a total of 75,600 jobs of California. We found the jobs supported are diverse, both blue- and white-collar, in a variety of industries, including construction and architecture, and engineering services. We also estimated the number of jobs supported by $1 million of investment in each California Climate Investment program. We found that for every $1 million the state spends in California Climate Investments, 8.8 jobs are supported in California. This can be compared to 1.6 jobs for every $1 million invested in the oil and gas industries.
See the associated article in Capitol Weekly.
The growth of the plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market and updates to the nation’s electric grid create jobs that require a wide range of sometimes non-traditional skills. Recognizing that workforce training is needed, Southern California Edison commissioned LCI to conduct research, stakeholder engagement, and seed a multi-phase process of transportation-electrification (TE) curriculum development. This report includes an assessment of the existing state of TE-specific education and training, and recommendations developed out of stakeholder engagement. The work supports a path forward for training PEV, charging infrastructure, and smart grid workforces.
Los Angeles launched the nation’s largest Feed-in Tariff (FiT) In Basin Solar program in 2013, helping to catalyze an emerging market for multifamily housing, commercial, warehouse, and industrial rooftop solar. Part of the promise of a properly designed and well-implemented FiT is that it will drive economic growth, enhance environmental sustainability and create social equity in the workforce by creating career ladder jobs through rooftop solar installations.
This report, commissioned by the Los Angeles Business Council, assesses the FiT program’s early impacts on the local solar market and on local employment. Researchers find that 40 percent of proposed solar projects are in solar equity “hot spots,” meaning in neighborhoods with high solar rooftop potential and indicators of high socioeconomic and environmental distress.
This report, commissioned by the Los Angeles Business Council, takes account of the potential for solar power in Los Angeles, describes the strength of the region’s workforce development infrastructure, and details policies that could both create solar jobs and ensure that a significant share go to workers living in communities of high need. We also look at the extent and efficiency of current solar programs among L.A. County’s seven utilities. We focus on industrial and commercial space, noting that the square footage of available rooftops makes for a large market with economies of scale.
