Climate 411

How Long Beach is Leading the Charge Toward a Clean Energy Future

By Nicholas Glover / Published: August 14, 2024

Written Q&A with Mayor Rex Richardson on Climate and Economic Progress in Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California, is showing communities around the country why embracing the clean energy economy is a winning strategy.

Home to one of the busiest port complexes in North America, with a long reliance on revenue from oil and gas, Long Beach is now charting a new path that marries climate progress and economic progress. Under Mayor Rex Richardson’s leadership, the city is making bold moves to electrify its port and cut harmful pollution, land coveted EV manufacturing jobs, and leverage billions in federal investment from historic climate laws – all while lifting up frontline and disadvantaged communities hit hardest by pollution and climate impacts.

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson

EDF has worked with Long Beach to host a roundtable of climate stakeholders to support their Climate Action Plan and continues to collaborate with the city through its partnership with the African American Mayor’s Association.  To get deeper insights on the city’s transformation, I asked Mayor Rex Richardson about Long Beach’s climate and economic plans, some of the exciting projects that are underway now and what other mayors can learn from his approach.

Let’s start with some big recent news: Ford has officially chosen Long Beach as its new home to develop its next generation of small, affordable EVs. What kinds of jobs and business opportunities will this new manufacturing facility bring to Long Beach? What has the response from the community been?

RR: In the City of Long Beach, we are laying the foundation for the Long Beach of the future — a global, sustainability-centered hub that attracts emerging companies, industries, and technologies in clean and renewable energy. Our recent announcement that Ford Motor Company has chosen Long Beach as the home for its new Advanced Electric Vehicle Development Center is evidence of our unwavering commitment to move full-speed ahead towards a zero-emission future.

Ford plans to open their research-and-development campus in Douglas Park, adjacent to Long Beach Airport, in early 2025. This campus will include two buildings and will host around 450 employees focused on designing Ford’s next generation of low-cost, electric vehicles.

Ford at Grow Long Beach - 26 June 2024 (1)

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson with Doug Field, Ford’s Chief Officer of EVs and Digital Systems, and Alan Clarke, Ford’s executive director of Advanced EV Development, at the city’s Grow Long Beach 2024 event announcing the automaker’s new EV development center. Photo courtesy of Long Beach, California.

As a part of our Grow Long Beach Initiative, and our city’s ongoing efforts to transition away from oil production revenues as a core funding source for city services, we are placing a focus on growing our economy by drawing thousands of new advanced manufacturing and engineering jobs that will support local Long Beach residents with competitive wages, and will allow graduates from our local schools and universities to buy a home and set roots in our community.

Also posted in Cities and states, Energy, Jobs / Authors: nglover / Comments are closed

Advanced methane technologies can strengthen new landfill pollution limits

By Edwin LaMair / Published: May 20, 2024

(This post was co-authored by EDF’s Peter Zalzal)

When organic waste ends up in landfills, it produces methane — a powerful climate pollutant —as it decomposes.

In the U.S., landfills are our third largest source of methane and a major driver of climate change. They also emit large amounts of health-harming and even cancer-causing pollution, such as toxic benzene, that endangers nearby communities. And to make matters even worse, they cause noise and odor problems.

Recent scientific studies indicate that landfills may be an even greater source of pollution than we thought. A study led by scientists at Carbon Mapper and recently published in the journal Science surveyed 20% of open U.S. landfills and found significant point source emissions at the majority (52%) of sites.

Earlier work based on data from the TROPOMI space satellite looked at 73 landfills and found their pollution was, on median, 77% more than what was reported to EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.

Advanced methane monitoring technology has developed rapidly in recent years, creating new opportunities to substantially reduce harmful pollution from landfills. EPA’s recently finalized oil and gas standards allow operators to deploy these technologies, such as aerial flyovers and drones, to find and fix methane leaks.

Building from this work, EPA now has a vital opportunity to incorporate advanced technologies into new landfill rules.

Also posted in Clean Air Act, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News, Policy / Comments are closed

How to improve soil modeling to maximize climate and farm benefits

By Jocelyn Lavallee / Published: May 2, 2024

Credit: Zoran Zeremski/iStock

Efforts to curb agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon storage are picking up steam to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. To have maximum impact, we need ways to reliably quantify their outcomes.

Direct measurement of the impacts of climate smart agricultural practices are imperative to instill confidence, but they aren’t forward-looking and can’t be done everywhere. Enter the use of process-based models (e.g., DNDC, DayCent) to estimate these changes more rapidly and across broader areas.

Process-based models are useful tools, but they have limitations, and many researchers and practitioners remain uncertain about how to use them most effectively. Yet, while skepticism in their accuracy remains a challenge, interest in them is skyrocketing, making it even more important that the community work together on their improvement.

A new report led by Environmental Defense Fund digs into how carbon project developers and companies are using process-based models across projects to explore current challenges, identify knowledge gaps and recommend improvements.

Also posted in Agriculture, News, Science / Read 1 Response

Building a greener future: How federal purchasing power can drive a low-carbon cement industry

By Akin Olumoroti / Published: March 7, 2024

This blog was co-authored by Dara Diamond, Federal Climate Innovation Intern

Historic climate investments from the Biden administration have put a much-needed down payment toward cutting emissions from industry — a major economic sector that makes up over a quarter of U.S. emissions. Still, a lot of hard work remains to meaningfully scale up solutions in this sector. A particularly tricky piece of the industrial emissions problem is hidden in plain sight all around us, in our buildings, sidewalks, highways and bridges: cement.

The scale of this climate challenge is colossal. Cement is the most widely used man-made material on the planet. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest emitter in the world.

To slash emissions from cement production, policymakers will need to make the most of existing climate investments and put forward a range of new solutions, including putting the federal government’s massive purchasing power to work.

Here is why cement poses unique climate challenges — and how policymakers can leverage public procurement to help meet them.

Also posted in Clean Power Plan, Economics, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Policy, Science / Comments are closed

IRA across the USA: 5 communities winning clean energy manufacturing jobs

By Derek Walker / Published: August 16, 2023

A year since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law, this historic climate legislation has already led to $278 billion in private investment that will support more than 170,000 clean energy jobs across the country.

And the work is just getting started.

Manufacturing incentives in the law, which encourage companies to build the clean energy supply chain here in the U.S., are creating manufacturing jobs and new economic opportunities for communities. According to the BlueGreen Alliance, the IRA will spur an estimated 900,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs over the next decade. The law also pairs incentives with labor standards that protect and prepare workers by requiring fair wages and apprenticeships.

Get to know some of the towns and communities around the country that are winning these major manufacturing investments and getting ready to build the clean energy technologies that will power our future.

Also posted in Cities and states, Economics, Energy, Green Jobs, Jobs, News, Policy / Comments are closed

Clearing the Air: California’s Leadership on Clean Trucks

By Alice Henderson / Published: July 28, 2023

A FedEx eStar electric truck in Los Angeles. Photo: Mr.choppers

This blog is co-authored by NRDC’s Britt Carmon, Guillermo A. Ortiz, and David Pettit. It originally appeared here.

California has long grappled with the challenge of improving its air quality, which ranks as the worst in the country. Heavy-duty diesel trucks, which are significant contributors to air and climate pollution, make it difficult for the state to achieve nationwide air quality standards. As such, it should be no surprise that the transportation sector remains the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, not only in California, but nationwide as well. However, the scale of the problem is not insurmountable. California has also been at the forefront of regulating tailpipe and motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions and has made steady progress towards cleaner air for decades.

Also posted in California, Cars and Pollution, Cities and states, Economics, Energy, Green Jobs, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Jobs, News, Partners for Change, Policy / Comments are closed

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