April 21: Can Technology Save the Economy? The U.S. stimulus bill includes tens of billions to support energy and information technologies. It is intended both to create jobs immediately and to set the stage for long-term economic growth. So why are economists and innovation experts so skeptical?...Almost all economists agree that technological progress drives long-term economic growth. Many proponents of the technology provisions in the stimulus bill go further, however, arguing that the funding will alsocreate jobs immediately. DANIEL KAMMEN, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE RENEWABLE AND APPROPRIATE ENERGY LABORATORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, estimates that investments in renewable energy create three to five times as many jobs as the equivalent investments in fossil-fuel energies.

April 8: Filling a Void in Climate Change Two new web sites tackle global warming and attempt to raise awareness of the challenges we face. ... The web site, California Climate Change Extension, features video interviews with some of the leading global warming experts in the state, including TWO UC BERKELEY PROFESSORS, DAN KAMMEN and MICHAEL HANEMANN....

April 6: Why It's Not Possible to Solve Climate Change Without China, presented by Orville Schell for the Energy and Resources Group's 16th Annual Lecture on Energy and the Environment.

DRAFT-Economic Assessment of All-Electric Vehicles Posted February 6, 2009: We find that even with gasoline at $4/gallon and electricity at $0.05/kWh, battery prices would need to fall below $200/kWh for EVs to be competitive with gasoline-fueled vehicles on the basis of fuel savings and purchase price.... A number of policies warrant examination to overcome some or all of this economic disadvantage. See also earlier work, "An innovation and policy agenda for commercially competitive plug-in hybrid electric vehicles".

TSRC at TRB Annual Meeting 2009, January 11-15 in Washington, D.C. A schedule showing activities of TSRC staff, researchers and students at the 2009 TRB Annual Meeting.

Plug-In 2009, August 10-13, 2009, Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach. The second annual international conference will showcase the latest technological advances, market research and policy initiatives shaping the development of plug-in hybrid electric transportation.

Dan Kammen hosts six-part "Ecopolis" series, Mondays on the Science Channel. Series ends Monday, January 12. "Each episode investigates several different visionary, technology-driven solutions to specific future megacity challenges...Kammen evaluates each... In the final episode, he ranks the five previously chosen ideas to determine which is most urgently needed to help revolutionize the ecological fate of future cities."—from the Science Channel press release

Posted December 31: Valuing Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles' Battery Capacity Using a Real Options Framework

Posted December 31:The Strategic Value of Unilateral Abatement in Games of Climate Change Policy (Social Science Research Network).

Posted December 31:Cost-Effectiveness of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (Social Science Research Network).

Presentations from the CEFIS Workshop Nov. 12, 2009 TSRC convened some 40 experts to discuss economic barriers to electric cars in California. Sign up for white paper.

TSRC Co-Director Susan Shaheen Keynotes at LEV and Innovative Urban Transportation Service Conference December 12, 2008, Taipei International Convention Center.

TSRC at the ITS World Congress 2008, November 16-20 in New York City A schedule showing activities of TSRC Co-directors Susan Shaheen and Tim Lipman, and Senior Researcher Caroline Rodier at the 2008 World Congress on ITS.

The Energy and Resources Group Colloquium Alternate Wednesdays 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
126 Barrows Hall, Professor Dan Kammen: October 8 David Schlissel Senior Consultant at Synapse Energy Economics "Risks of Investing in New Coal-Fired Power Plants"

September 2008: Dan Kammen named TSRC Director; Tim Lipman and Susan Shaheen made Co-Directors

September 23, 2008: Western Climate Initiative issues "Design Recommendations for the WCI Regional Cap-and-Trade Program" (122-page PDF).

Plug-in hybrids generate buzz in San Jose: Once known only to a small group of devotees, the ultra-high-mileage cars have generated enough buzz to draw about 650 people to a plug-in conference in San Jose Tuesday.

Conference panelists see car battery breakthrough: The lithium-ion battery, already a fixture in personal electronic devices, soon will become the answer to high oil prices and environmental concerns as it bulks up to power rechargeable electric vehicles, government, university and industry panelists predicted Monday.

Utilities say grid can handle rechargeable cars: Which draws more juice from the electric grid, a big-screen plasma television or recharging a plug-in hybrid car?

GM, utilities join to study electric car impact: General Motors Corp. has joined with more than 30 utility companies across the U.S. to help work out electricity issues that will crop up when it rolls out new electric vehicles in a little more than two years.

Nissan Says Electric Cars Will Be Quickly Profitable: The electric cars that Nissan Motor plans to start selling by 2010 will have varying capabilities depending on a given country’s driving patterns, but all will be priced competitively and will generate profits, company executives said Tuesday.

Plug In, Drive On: The Promise of Next-Gen Hybrids (NPR)

Headline June 1: US car sharing gains traction as motoring costs rise: Susan Shaheen, research director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, said companies like Zipcar are changing the consumer love affair with cars.

April 26: Tim Lipman and Susan Shaheen Named Acting Co-Directors of TSRC:

Mike Cassidy, Acting Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), announced that TSRC Research Directors Tim Lipman and Susan Shaheen would serve as Acting Co-Drectors of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center.

In a message to the ITS, Cassidy wrote: "In the wake of Alex Farrell's sad passing, Susan and Tim's willingness to step forward for now and jointly assume this leadership role is to our very good fortune. With Susan and Tim at the helm, TSRC will continue its research in the areas of advanced vehicles and fuels, transportation and climate change, and sustainable mobility."

Cassidy also announced that Kim Strasburg had joined the center as Business Manager.

April 21: Biofuel Community Mourns Berkeley Researcher
Alex Farrell's research into the full environmental impacts of biofuels is sorely needed, scientists say. He leaves a legacy of his work on California's low-carbon fuel standard and in building an energy community. From Greentech Media...

Alex Farrell - UC energy expert dead at 46 From the San Francisco Chronicle...

TSRC Director Alex Farrell Dies at 46:... "Alex was brilliant, energetic, supportive, insightful and caring, and he had a way of challenging his colleagues and students to think more critically even when they thought they already were," said Tim Lipman, a UC Berkeley colleague and the founding research director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. "His career had reached a point where his loss is an enormous one, not just for the Energy and Resources Group and the transportation center, but also for the global transportation and energy community." Read more of the University NewsCenter obituary of Alex Farrell...

April 2: Now Online: "The Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Land Use Change," PDF of TSRC Director Alex Farrell's Powerpoint presentation to the Western States Petroleum Association's Lifecycle Analysis Collaborative (March 19).

April 1: "Hydrogen fuel cars: The expensive truth... It costs $50 to $100 dollars to fill up your car and it's showing no sign of subsiding. It's a financial hardship on a growing number of people as Bay Area researchers look to hydrogen as a possible fix....
... "'The real number we have to pay attention to is half a million to a million dollars a car,'" says Dr. Alex Farrell PhD of UC Berkeley. Farrell is so much of an energy expert that on Tuesday, he addressed a room filled with them at Lawrence Livermore Lab. "'There is no one answer. There's a lot of things that are going to be the answer. Efficiency is part of the answer. Electric is part of the answer. Biofuels is part of the answer. And maybe hydrogen, too," says Farrell."—Wayne Freedman, ABC7 News, San Francisco

March 24: Now Online, Bioenergy Research Needs for Heat, Electricity, and Liquid Fuels, (PDF of article) Alexander E. Farrell and Anand R. Gopal, in Materials Research Society (MRS) Bulletin | April 2008 "Harnessing Materials for Energy" (takes you to MRS Web site).

Abstract: Biomass remains a key energy source for several billion people living in developing countries, and the production of liquid biofuels for transportation is growing rapidly. However, both traditional biomass energy and crop-based biofuels technologies have negative environmental and social impacts. The overall research challenge for bioenergy is to develop the technologies to produce useful products at low costs while minimizing the use of scarce resources such as arable land and water. This requires substantial advancements in modern biomass power generation and the success of liquid biofuel technologies that permit the use of lignocellulosic feedstocks or possibly algae. With such technologies, biomass resources could meet a significant fraction (over 10%) of global energy demand. Both improved policies and technologies are needed to ensure that bioenergy contributes significantly to economic, social, and environmental goals.

March 18: Now Online, Daniel M. Kammen, Alexander E. Farrell, Richard J. Plevin, Andrew D. Jones, Gregory F. Nemet, and Mark A. Delucchi (March 1, 2008) Energy and Greenhouse Impacts of Biofuels: A Framework for Analysis

February 26: TSRC takes delivery of two fuel cell vehicles at Richmond Field Station office.

February 25: An innovation and policy agenda for commercially competitive plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (goes to Environmental Research Letters page with links to full report and author contact information). DM Lemoine, DM Kammen and AE Farrell.

"Dynamics of the Oil Transition: Modeling Capacity, Costs, and Emissions" (PDF on the University of California Energy Institute site). Adam R. Brandt and Alexander E. Farrell

"Research and Implementation Challenges of Sustainable Biofuels," TSRC Director Alex Farrell, participates in the 2007 Path-UTC Conference session on Sustainable Vehicles and Fuels, Tuesday, October 30, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Conference registration required ($100 for three days). At the Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center at the Berkeley Marina.

October 15

"Biofuels: Linking Support to Performance," summary and conclusions from the Joint Transport Research Centre's June 7-8 Round Table in Paris now available. TSRC Direector Alex Farrell was named to the round table in April. A key finding: "Volumetric production targets for biofuels fail to provide incentives to contain costs, to avoid environmental damage or even to ensure greenhouse gas emission reductions are delivered. Carbon content targets for fuels, accompanied by certification, are a better alternative."

October 12

"Hybrid, schmybrid. This truck runs on batteries—an all-electric delivery truck freshly imported from Coventry, England...Unlike hybrid vehicles, this two-seater runs solely on a battery."—Napa Valley Register

September 10

New from the TSRC's Non-Conventional Fuels Project: Biofuel Boundaries: Estimating the Medium-Term Supply Potential of Domestic Biofuels. Andrew Jones, Michael O’Hare, Alexander Farrell. RESEARCH REPORT: UCB-ITS-TSRC-RR-2007-4. (links to a page with abstract and link to pdf)

Abstract excerpt: We estimate the physical supply potential of biofuels from domestic municipal solid waste, forestry residues, crops residues and energy crops grown on existing cropland using optimistic assumptions about near-term conversion technologies.

August 28

Toyota wary of real consumer demand in U.S. for plug-in cars: Toyota's caution reveals a difference in approach between the Japanese automaker, which has sold more than 800,000 Prius hybrids globally since 1997, and General Motors, which wants to build as many as 60,000 Volt plug-in electric cars in the model's first year, people with knowledge of GM's plans said last week.—International Herald Tribune

Opinion: "Promoting low-carbon fuels for California's energy future: The University of California report on implementing the governor's Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) is an important signpost to California's energy future. The architects of the LCFS acknowledge we need major technology breakthroughs to meet its goals. What California also needs is policymaking that unleashes - not shackles - the power of the market."—Mike Wirth, Chevron, in the San Francisco Chronicle August 13

Plug-in Prius turns heads - Ferrari of hybrids It looks pretty much like any other Toyota Prius, sitting in its Redwood City garage, but there is that telltale yellow industrial-strength power cord coming out of its tail and snaking around to a 120-volt electrical outlet...Hybrids at UC...Less than a week later, Toyota said it would provide two factory-made Prius plug-in hybrids to the University of California - at campuses in Berkeley and Irvine - for a two-year test on U.S. roads. August 6

"A Low-Carbon Fuel Standard for California, Part 2" Released

University of California experts today released their much-anticipated "Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (Part 2, Policy Analysis)."

Designed to stimulate improvements in transportation-fuel technologies, it is expected to become the foundation for similar initiatives. The standard’s authors are Professor Alex Farrell, director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at UC Berkeley, and Professor Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis.—University of California News Release. August 2

UC Experts Release Global Warming Blueprint—PROF. ALEX FARRELL, ENERGY & RESOURCES, U.C. BERKELEY: "We sell an enormous amount of fuel, 15 billion gallons of gasoline every year in
California, and making a dent in 15 billion gallons takes a little while." Alex Farrell is one of two University of California energy experts advising Governor Schwarzenegger on putting his global warming plan into action. He wants it law by 2010, and by 2020, carbon emissions cut 10-percent—KGO TV August 2

Plug-in Prius as Energy Supplier The official blog of Toyota discusses using theToyota Prius in vehicle-to-grid applications, in response to a question by a commissioner with the Federal Energy Commission. Posted July 27

Bargain bus company riding into Bay Area next week The Chicago group figures that coaches provide 184 passenger miles of service per gallon of fuel and that carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by an average of 85 percent per passenger mile compared with people driving their cars solo.—San Francisco Chronicle August 2

Recruiting drive for other Cool Counties Supervisors call on peers around state to enact climate pact.—San Francisco Chronicle August 2

Growing plankton for the carbon market: No one knows how an offset trading regime might work in the U.S. With such big numbers involved, the government will certainly want some control. ALEX FARRELL IS A PROFESSOR OF ENERGY AND RESOURCES AT UC BERKELEY. He says it's hard to know how federal agencies might regulate an American carbon reduction scheme....Farrell says government involvement could end up working against an offset trading scheme. Federal regulation could push companies to cut their own emissions, rather than buy offsets...—American Public Media, "Marketplace." July 6.

"Is tidal energy next wave? Water flowing through Golden Gate floated as fresh power source: 'Tidal power is an interesting form of renewable energy in that it is predictable. Other forms, like solar and wind energy, are less predictable,' said Alex Farrell, Assistant Professor of Energy and Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Because it is predictable, tidal power is a more dependable resource, he said...." —Oakland Tribune. June 20.

"Tidal Power Could Be The Wave Of The Future in S.F.: Mayor Newsom Calls It Historic Agreement: Prof. Alex Farrell, PhD, U.C. Berkeley: 'The cost of the energy would be in the lower range of the cost of energy you buy from all sorts of sources and would certainly be something that is affordable.'" —Video and text from KGO Channel 7. June 20.

"LCFS report director Alex Farrell discusses nationwide implementation of Calif. fuels plan...With several proposals in the House and Senate for the creation of a nationwide low carbon fuel standard (LCFS), California's LCFS plan is seen as a model for what the rest of the nation can achieve." Q & A on Energy & Environment TV's OnPoint. Link to text version. Video. June 11.

Alex Farrell, TSRC director and co-director of the Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS) report, to take part in a panel discussion of the draft report, "A Low-Carbon Fuel Standard for California," during a Congressional briefing in the Capitol hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the California Institute for Federal Policy Research. Farrell will also present technical details and challenges in implementing LCFS in a technical discussion session to follow the panel. This will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience. June 5.

"A Low-Carbon Fuel Standard for California Part 1: Technical Analysis." More information about the project is located on the low-carbon fuel standards site of the California Energy Commission. May 29

Is ethanol really worth it? The perfect storm of agribusiness lobbies, national security and environmentalists:..The team of Dan Kammen and Alex Farrell of the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley has made its model, the Energy and Resources Group Biofuels Meta Model (EBAMM), available to the public on its Web site..."Ethanol can be, if it's made the right way with cellulosic technology, a really good fuel for the United States," said Farrell, an assistant professor of energy and resources. "At the moment, cellulosic technology is just too expensive. If that changes - and the technology is developing rapidly - then we might see cellulosic technology enter the commercial market within five years."—The Journal Press, King George, VA. May 24.

From KPBS in San Diego: "State Wants To Spur Gas Alternatives: ...The plan is expected to displace one-fifth of California's gasoline consumption with lower carbon fuels and put more than 70-million alternative or hybrid vehicles on the roads. UC Berkeley Professor Alex Farrell says California can tap its own resources to produce the fuels to power those hybrids" (link to transcript of radio interview, with link to audio feed). May 23.

Alex Farrell, TSRC director, and Daniel Sperling, professor and director of ITS at UC Davis, unveil low-carbon fuel standards for state of California. May 18.

Customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. can volunteer now for a program intended to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases spewed into the atmosphere...The ClimateSmart program, which officials said will start later this summer, assesses customers a small fee that is used to build programs that cut down on emissions. Spokesman Keely Wachs said much of the money will probably be used to plant trees, which store carbon dioxide that would otherwise contribute to global warming. April 20.

Cal energy professor named to biofuel standards group: A UC BERKELEY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENERGY AND RESOURCES has been named to an international group that will attempt to develop the world's first social and environmental standards for biofuels, the plant-based gasoline substitutes that promise to ease global heating but threaten to push up food prices and damage tropical ecosystems. ALEX FARRELL's appointment was announced Tuesday. He will serve as one of 21 members of the steering board of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, which is hosted at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic University at Lausanne. April 18.

Study warns of health risk from ethanol:...Alex Farrell, a Berkeley professor of energy and resources, was also complimentary of the study. "It's a good scientific paper that has taken the first look at the air-quality impacts of ethanol in a worst-case scenario," he said. "It is definitely my opinion that ethanol is not the only solution to air pollution." April 18.

Green Biofuels Index would aid consumers, market: The debate over whether biofuels like ethanol are better for the environment than fossil fuels has left many consumers confused and unsure where to fill their gas tanks....Much of this confusion could be eliminated with a biofuels rating system that would reflect the positive or negative environmental impacts of a particular fuel, according to a group of University of California, Berkeley, researchers. A ratings system, like the Michelin stars for hotels and restaurants, would take into account all environmental aspects of biofuels processing and production, from the way biofuel crops are tilled and fertilized to the kinds of energy - coal, natural gas or biomass, for example - used to process them. April 17.

Web site and Webcast/Podcast of Sen. Dianne Feinstein: "Cap and Trade as a Tool for Climate Change Policy Conference", Co-organized by TSCR Director Alex Farrell, Feb. 22-23, at the University of California, Berkeley, at Boalt Hall School of Law. Sessions of particular interest to transportation were the ones on technology and innovation. The theme was the design and implementation of cap and trade programs for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a tool for climate change policy at the state, regional, national and international levels. Go to Website Go to Feinstein Podcast/Webcast. March 19.

Global warming affecting crop yields adversely, study finds/ Decline expected to impact food supply, biofuel production Crop yields, in general, are climbing, continuing to ride almost half a century of improvements in plant varieties, fertilizers and irrigation.... But new analysis by Livermore climate scientist David Lobell and Christopher Field, head of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford, concludes the gains have been retarded by rising heat around the globe in the last 20 years. March 16.

His energy bill is $0.00: A New Jersey civil engineer powers his home with solar panels and hydrogen tanks. Can it work in the mainstream?. March 15.

Burying greenhouses gases will be key:
To halt catastrophic climate change, the US has less than a decade learn how to capture and store carbon dioxide. March 13.