Recent ucd_environment_epm items

Implications for Future Housing Development within Fire Hazard Severity Zones in California

Tue, 5 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Implications for Future Housing Development within Fire Hazard Severity Zones in California

Prioritize Rental Housing to Equitably Meet California's Emissions Reduction Targets

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Prioritize Rental Housing to Equitably Meet California's Emissions Reduction Targets

Leveraging California's Aqueduct to Catalyze Solar Deployment

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Leveraging California's Aqueduct to Catalyze Solar Deployment

Impact of California’s Net Billing Tariff Regulation and Bidirectional EV Charging on Demand for Residential Photovoltaic and Battery Storage Systems

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In April 2023 the California Public Utilities Commission adopted the Net Billing Tariff (NBT) replacing the NEM2 rate structure governing net energy metering for distributed generation. In this study California residential photovoltaic (PV) interconnections data for a 5-year period are utilized to retrospectively analyze trends in battery storage (BESS) adoption, average system size, third-party finance, and electric vehicle use, comparing customers on NBT to those on NEM2. An economic benefit-cost model is then set up to explain the observed trends in terms of payback period and ROI of PV and BESS investments facing a middle-income California homeowner. NBT is found to provide strong incentives for pairing PV solar with storage that were absent from the NEM2 policy. Bidirectional EV charging is then introduced into the model by setting up and solving an optimization problem to simultaneously determine least-cost EV and BESS hourly dis/charging schedules. We find that under both...

Surge Protection: Policy Recommendations for End-of-Life EV Battery Management in Nepal

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Surge Protection: Policy Recommendations for End-of-Life EV Battery Management in Nepal

Reducing Microfiber Pollution through Mandatory Filtration Standards for New Washing Machines

Tue, 3 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Reducing Microfiber Pollution through Mandatory Filtration Standards for New Washing Machines

The Mitigation of AI Data Center E-Waste on the Federal Level

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On a global scale, the United States is one of the largest producers of electronic waste (e-waste). This has negative implications for environmental quality and public health as e-waste contains toxins such as mercury and lead. There is an absence of federal legislation that manages e-waste, leaving recycling and disposal open-ended and up to the discretion of its owner, with the exception of some state regulations. Poor management of electronic waste therefore degrades various ecosystems and disrupts communities nearby disposal sites due to leakage. Given the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers, the amount of e-waste will only multiply in coming years. This brief summarizes electronic waste as a byproduct of data center expansion, identifies consequences of improper disposal, and highlights existing global and state legislation that aim to decrease e-waste.

Reforming Organic Waste Franchise Agreements to Support Community Composting Under SB 1383

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Reforming Organic Waste Franchise Agreements to Support Community Composting Under SB 1383

Mapping the Social & Environmental Impacts of Lithium Mining in the Americas

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Mapping the Social & Environmental Impacts of Lithium Mining in the Americas

Biodiversity and Human Rights Issues in Supply Chain Management

Thu, 8 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Supply chains connect consumer activity in California (CA) to human rights violations and environmental destruction abroad. This brief summarizes weaknesses of U.S. supply chain regulations regarding human rights abuse and biodiversity loss, highlights stronger legislation from the European Union (EU), and presents recommendations for CA to adopt supply chain regulation in the absence of adequate federal management.

Net energy metering in California: Current Issues and Policy Recommendations

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

California’s renewable energy journey has been remarkable and the popularity of “rooftop solar” has played a major role in it. For over two decades, this has been driven by the State’s Net energy metering (NEM) policy which has gone through multiple revisions since its introduction in 1996. This policy brief discusses a few urgent equity issues with the latest NEM 3.0 rate design and proposes some tweaks. First, an increase in both the fixed ‘grid participation’ charge and the variable price paid for electricity exports to the grid are proposed. This is designed to revive flagging solar industry growth while also addressing equity concerns in how the grid’s fixed costs are shared by utility customers. Next, policy recommendations are made for increasing low-and-middle income communities’ participation in renewable energy. The proposed policy changes seek a balance between competing but equally critical environmental justice goals.

Updating and amending CalOES’ Prepare California Initiative community resilience grant eligibility: recognizing socially vulnerable communities’ deep-seated landslide exposure

Tue, 2 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Updating and amending CalOES’ Prepare California Initiative community resilience grant eligibility: recognizing socially vulnerable communities’ deep-seated landslide exposure