I'd like to announce an exciting new postdoc position we just opened up to work on new approaches to indirect land use change assessment and risk mitigation.
Please share through your networks!
its.ucdavis.edu/about-us/car...
Lovely new blog by @auffhammer.bsky.social, who clearly enjoyed a full helping of snark this Thanksgiving!
energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/a...
I 100% agree, I have a Ph.D. in this stuff and I can't understand half of my bill (except the total I owe, they're great at making that clear)
Similar workshops are being held around the country, in case you're not in our neighborhood. See the link in the invitation to find one in your area.
Please share this announcement and I'm happy to answer questions!
Interested in the GREET model for transportation LCA? Have you found the GREET model to be very confusing and tough to work with?
We can help with that! ITS-Davis will host a 2-day R&D GREET model training workshop model in Sacramento this November, I'll be your instructor!
conta.cc/4lfRBoP
good morning, short thread on the raids in Camarillo, Ventura County, California. Friends of mine were tear gassed and fired upon with "less lethal" bullets for showing up with a bullhorn.
They carted away busloads of farmworkers.
Families torn apart. Children sobbing. This is Trump's America.
I just donated! RL Miller is the real deal. She shows up when things are tough.
True. The way to establish the water level a X year flood will hit is to watch that body of water over many 100's of years, or longer. You can't really do that while the climate is actively and significantly changing. We can model approximations, but our models are also in uncharted territory.
I have a new blog up at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies: No, Your Gasoline Prices Will Not Rise by 65 cents per gallon in July. I'll give you three guesses to figure out what it's about.
its.ucdavis.edu/blog-post/no...
Right now, about 1/4 of LCFS revenue goes toward EVs; by the early 2030's it will be over 1/2.
I agree that capping the amount of lipid-based biofuel given credits under the LCFS would be good for the program and emissions, but killing the whole thing throws a lot of baby out with the bathwater
🌎 On #EarthDay, join us for our fourth annual #CAClimateSummit.
Register: theclimatecenter.org/summit2025
With policy experts, elected officials, business leaders, scientists, and activists, we'll explore how to draw down carbon and build resilience for a climate-safe future.
Lots of people saying, "just wait until the consequences hit!"
I would remind you that last time Trump was president, he botched a pandemic & a million Americans died. As a result, he was reelected & Americans turned on their own public health agencies.
Is there a ten cent thing that I can buy with a dime, but wouldn't buy if it would cost me a quarter? If so, then we should keep dimes, if not, then maybe we don't need cash smaller than a quarter. I can't think of that thing, however, a quarter is the smallest transaction we typically care about.
Agree that prices don't care about coins, but most transactions today are electronic, with cash's share likely to continue declining. So the question is what's the smallest unit of currency for which there is a significant need for precise cash transactions?
I'd submit that right now the quarter is the smallest meaningful unit of currency we have in the U.S. Anything smaller is kept for the sake of tradition or to let us complete the math without arbitrary rounding. Is that worth paying $billions to allow it to continue for cash transactions? I say no
If we can ignore the 1-2 cents the consumer or store might lose by omitting the penny, then why is the 2-3 cents they might lose without nickel a problem? Is five cents a functional unit of currency in the US? Do we buy anything for five cents, or is it just there to complete the transaction math?
It's hard to argue that the dime has much value as a mechanism of transaction these days, even harder to argue we'll still need it in 10 years. Do we need coinage smaller than a quarter?
Exactly. A problem which has the exact same solution: eliminate the nickel, too.
I don't know that I buy that argument (which comes from a pro-penny group). It's not like there's a major constituency of people who demand exact change when making cash transactions. Even if they're right, then we can round to the dime or quarter.
Credit where it's due: This is a sensible decision we should have made long ago: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/u...
I wonder if we should be thinking of Musk's seizing of Treasury as an historic cyber-security breach that endangers the entire US and global financial system.
Every government and financial institution in the world should be demanding that Treasury arrest the hackers, restore integrity of US govt.
Elon Musk illegally seized the purse strings of the United States. An unelected billionaire may have access to everyone’s social security numbers.
We need answers now. This power grab cannot stand.
Why should a House member take a bunch of hours to write and file those articles? The fact that WH is trying to waffle out of the spending freeze shows that they do respond to massive public pushback. Right now leaders should be mobilizing the public to push back and organizing for 2026.
Gotta prioritize things that have an impact, including on public perception. We already impeached him twice and he still won reelection (narrow margin, but a win's a win). Why would articles of impeachment buried in the docket of a House committee change things?
Using their platform to shine light on awful things he's actually doing seems to be registering more effectively right now and given that he's clearly flooding the zone with awful actions, is it really worth wasting time on a useless gesture? Impeachment seems like an after-the-first-100-days thing
If that was really the most helpful thing for setting narrative or galvanizing the electorate for action sure. But we've been here before, failed impeachment attempts don't seem to damage presidents (Trump or Clinton) and articles of impeachment that go nowhere don't seem to register
They're in the minority in the House, they probably couldn't even get articles of impeachment out of committee unless the R chair sided with them (never gonna happen), and the R's in the Senate have never indicated the slightest interest in holding Trump accountable for his crimes.
Though, if California can't get electricity prices under control, then the cost advantages evaporate. I was on a road trip in my EV recently and had to fast charge. I ended up paying less per kWh at a commercial fast charger than I do for standard off-peak rates under PG&E.
So between our inability to do math, and the years of messaging from traditional automakers attacking EVs, most people still think that EVs are the more expensive option. Once the sticker price equalizes, I think we'll see a lot more movement.
Yeah, the operational cost advantages are huge. At this point, any mid-market EV is cheaper over its lifetime than a comparable ICE, and often cheaper over the first 10 years. The problem is that most people don't think about TCO when evaluating vehicles (there are several studies showing this)
And once again, Democrats focus on winning past elections, not the upcoming ones.
