Ethan Elkind

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Report Release Webinar for New Report "Driving Demand: Solutions To Increase The Market for Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles”. After registering, you will ... UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and the UCLA Law Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment are pleased to offer this free webinar on policies for Calif...

Finally, register for our free webinar on the report, featuring a keynote with @calenergy.bsky.social Cmr. Nancy Skinner & Ray Minjares @theicct.org & Adam Browning from Forum Mobility.

Tuesday, January 13th, 2-3pm PT:

berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Driving Demand: Solutions To Increase The Market for Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles December 2025 Medium- and heavy-duty trucks are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Yet California’s policies to phase out fossil fuel-powered trucks in favor of zero-emi...

Read more in the full report!
www.law.berkeley.edu/research/cle...

Legislature could create revenue neutral, self-funding incentive program via fees on diesel trucks

Legislature could exempt clean trucks from state sales tax
and equalize registration fees w/diesel trucks

Ports could adopt green lanes, preferential reservation, or reduced fees for clean trucks

Among the key recs:

Legislature could create a “Clean Miles Standard” for freight, requiring shippers to meet a % of the miles their goods travel via clean trucks

@airresources.bsky.social could create a statewide Indirect Source Rule so facilities like ports & warehouses require clean trucks

With federal rollbacks of clean truck policy, how can states like California ensure enough demand?

Our new @cleeberkeley.bsky.social @uclalawemmett.bsky.social report "Driving Demand" contains multiple recommendations for state policy.

🧵

How California (And Other States) Can Drive Demand for Clean Trucks - Legal Planet CLEE and the UCLA Emmett Institute release new report today and will hold Jan. 13 webinar with Energy Commissioner Nancy Skinner keynote.

CLEE and the UCLA Emmett Institute released new report today on how California (and other states) can "Drive Demand" for clean trucks. There's also a Jan. 13 webinar with Energy Commissioner Nancy Skinner keynote. @ethanelkind.bsky.social

legal-planet.org/2025/12/09/h...

I did a test drive last month of Tesla’s electric semi, and it accelerates and handles almost like an SUV. I’m also told by industry buyers that it’s twice the range & half the price of legacy truckmakers’ e-trucks.

This is potentially a full replacement model for fossil gas utilities, utilizing a neighborhood-scale network of water pumped underground (to keep it at ~55 degrees) to help heat pumps operate super efficiently when it’s much colder or hotter outside.

In the energy context, California recognizes this principle only for GHG-reducing projects (renewables & storage). By contrast, large-scale housing projects on open space are not by definition a GHG (or VMT) reducer.

Fmr CA Insurance Commissioner & my @cleeberkeley.bsky.social colleague @cadavejones.bsky.social on what it will take to stabilize the US insurance market in the near-to-medium term:

yalelawjournal.org/essay/the-un...

In 1978, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors downzoned the city, banning multifamily homes in many areas and sparking a decades-long affordability crisis.

47 years later, on a 7–4 vote, they passed the Family Zoning Plan to finally begin to undo that mistake.

The times, they are a-changin’!

The plan will allow taller, denser buildings in some areas of the city. New zoning in San Francisco will allow denser housing to be built in western and northern neighborhoods.

New zoning in San Francisco will allow denser housing to be built in western and northern neighborhoods.

New report from the California Energy Commission shows Californians spent $60 billion on gasoline last year www.energy.ca.gov/sites/defaul...

Montreal's New Rail Line Is the Future - Macleans.ca Canada has forgotten how to build fast, cheap transit. A new megaproject has the fix.

US public transit advocates: Don't just envy Europe. Start by envying Canada.

Great piece on Montreal's remarkably cheap new rapid transit system.

macleans.ca/society/mont...

Indian state govt: We don't want to build new coal power plants, because they are more expensive than renewables plus batteries.

US federal govt: Take my money and keep those expensive, polluting coal plants running.

China has gone from 52% plug in EV sales in the summer to 59% in October. That’s the very steep part of the diffusion S curve right there. Also, the NEV requirement in 2025 is 48% - they are ahead of their target.

Deep dive review here on the new all-electric postal delivery vans, coming soon to (most of) your neighborhoods.

Very excited my drive report on an important new #EV is now live. This was in the works for a while after Oshkosh was kind enough to let us drive a very early prototype of their Next Generation Delivery Vehicle.

You'll soon see these throughout the U.S. as USPS renews its aged fleet. Watch for 'em!

I’ve been waiting for an answer from the L.A. Department of Water and Power on when exactly they’d stop burning coal at Intermountain. They had promised by the end of November. This certainly appears to be it.

Super cheap solar and batteries means you can skip the grid connection (or at least connect faster with a smaller one) for EV fast charging sites.

ICIJ investigation exposes crypto industry’s $28b in dirty money As the crypto industry has become less regulated, billions in funds from scammers, money launderers, and other criminal groups have flowed onto major crypto exchanges.

A new investigation reveals $28B in dirty money laundered through crypto exchanges, while the US weakens oversight.

We'll discuss today on Your Call w/ @spencerwoodman.bsky.social & Sam Ellefson @icij.org.

Tune in @kalwradio.bsky.social 10am PT or stream live!

www.kalw.org/show/your-ca...

China's diesel trucks are shifting to electric. That could change global LNG and diesel demand China is rapidly replacing its aging diesel trucks with electric models, signaling a major shift in the world’s largest vehicle market.

Chinese companies are poised to dominate the global electric truck market, with big repercussions for diesel fuel demand:

apnews.com/article/chin...

The safety benefits of switching to an all-electric home and getting off of fossil gas appliances may be the most compelling reason to switch for most people, next to improving indoor air quality.

This would be a huge loss! I can’t imagine the East Bay without the steam train.

The current month to month lease makes it impossible for the operators to make long term needed investments.

Urge East Bay Regional Park District to approve a long-term lease, by emailing publiccomment@ebparks.org.

Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.

Iowa City raised parking and utility fees to pay for free buses, and ridership has surged beyond pre-pandemic levels with attendant emissions decreases:

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...

Rising Home Insurance Premiums Are Eating Into Home Values in Disaster-Prone Areas Changes in the insurance market have started to affect home prices in the most disaster-prone areas, new research finds, pushing some homeowners’ finances to the breaking point.

The cost of climate change now hitting homeowners across the country:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Vertical construction underway for trio of apartment buildings near Expo/Bundy Station Just south of Expo/Bundy Station in Sawtelle, the arrival of two orange tower cranes are the latest sign of progress on the construction of a trio of developments from Carmel Partners.

Some years ago LA upzoned a single family area next to the Expo/Bundy station. 20 homeowners sold their property at huge profits to developers and now they’re turning into 600 new apartments.

Hopefully we’ll see projects like this all over the state in coming years now that SB79 has legalized them.

UC Berkeley and Project CETI study shows sperm whales communicate in ways similar to humans The way sperm whales communicate may be more similar to human language than previously thought. The acoustic properties of whale calls resemble vowels, a defining feature of human language, according ...

Researchers from @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social discover human-like whale "vowels" in how sperm whales communicate, in a promising use case for AI:

ls.berkeley.edu/news/uc-berk...

Prescribed burning helps store forest carbon in big, fire-resistant trees - Berkeley News A two decade long experiment in the Sierra Nevada found that regular prescribed burns promote carbon sequestration in live trees and plants, maintaining forests’ long-term ability to store carbon whil...

Prescribed burning in the Sierras leads to short term carbon losses but long-term carbon sequestration benefits, per new @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social study:

news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/17/p...

Tune in at 6pm PT - I'll be discussing COP30 and what it means for California as a guest (not host) on @stateofthebay.bsky.social.

LMK here (or call in) if you have any questions or comments you'd like me to address!