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Millard-Ball on Who Deserves Carbon Credits

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UCLA Luskin’s Adam Millard-Ball, professor of urban planning and acting director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, commented in an MIT Technology Review article about a California-based car manufacturer seeking to earn carbon credits for its electric vehicle chargers. Rivian, producer of high-end trucks and SUVs, has applied to one of the world’s largest certifiers of carbon credits to retain “all environmental attributes” from the use of its chargers, the article revealed. Residential chargers are included along with the company’s own charging stations and third-party site hosts under the company’s plan, which Millard-Ball doubts would be noticed by purchasers or likely pointed out by sellers. “If someone is buying a charger and the company is selling away the good so someone else can pollute more, I don’t think that’s in the spirit of the marketing or the branding or the motivations of many people who buy electric vehicles,” he said.

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Manville on Proposed Per-Mile Driver Fees

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Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville was mentioned in a San Diego Union-Tribune article about the city’s proposed road fee, which would charge drivers a set price for every mile traveled. The road charge would help pay for San Diego’s $160-billion proposal to expand rail, bus and other transportation services throughout the region. It would also help replace the revenue from the current gas tax as fossil fuels are phased out in efforts to combat climate change. “The gas tax, regardless of how much revenue it raises, is in fact a climate tax, a carbon tax,” Manville explained. “We probably shouldn’t just throw that out the window.” A statewide pilot program is also testing the road charge strategy. Experts are debating whether to adopt a flat per-mile fee or charge more to drivers with less fuel-efficient vehicles. While the second option would be more complicated, it would incentivize drivers to adopt cleaner vehicles.

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