California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Daniel Sperling also engaged in 2004 at the launch event held at UC Davis for the nation’s first Hydrogen Highway Network.
Energy: Revolutionary low-carbon fuel standard drafted
UC Davis transportation expert Daniel Sperling has spent most of his life trying to reduce the pollution spewing from our cars. Since he founded the Institute of Transportation Studies 15 years ago, his ideas on the matter have been sought by major automakers, environmental groups, public-health advocates and policymakers around the world.
In 2007, his influence once again bolstered UC Davis’ international reputation for transportation engineering and policy expertise: Sperling was asked by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to co-lead the drafting of a new state policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. The resulting Low Carbon Fuel Standard aims to reduce California’s carbon emissions by 10 percent by the year 2020.
In a year when climate change became a pressing worldwide concern, other governments announced plans to follow California’s lead in enacting their own Low Carbon Fuel Standards, including the European Commission, the Canadian province of Ontario and the state of Florida. And one of the leading Democratic candidates for U.S. president has endorsed a national standard.
“This very innovative and very important new policy will be a model for the rest of the world,” Sperling said. “It will help the state reduce oil imports, reduce greenhouse gases, and boost investments in alternative fuels.”
The influential thinking of Dan Sperling and his ITS-UC Davis colleagues is changing the world, one tailpipe at a time.
2007 ENERGY
UC Davis will study users of new plug-in hybrid cars
During the next two years, 10 UC Davis cars — converted Toyota Priuses — will be loaned to 100 families in Northern California for six to eight weeks each. The drivers will be surveyed about their automobile preferences and attitudes before, during and after they use the cars, and the analysis of their experiences will constitute the first comprehensive consumer report on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
UC Davis expert named to California Air Board
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named UC Davis transportation expert Daniel Sperling to the California Air Resources Board, a regulatory agency widely seen as a global leader in clean-air and climate-change programs.
UC Davis Partners on new $125 million federal bioenergy research center
UC Davis researchers, who are experts at turning plants into energy for transportation, buildings and industry, will be partners in a new $125 million federal bioenergy research center focusing on biofuels — liquid fuels derived from the solar energy stored in plant matter.
Nanocrystals key to better fuel cells
A new way to make cubic zirconia with very small crystal sizes could be key to making hydrogen fuel cells more reliable and cost-effective. The invention by a team led by Professor Zuhair Munir was included in Nanotech Briefs’ 2007 Nano50 awards, which recognize technologies, products and people most likely to impact the state of the art in nanotechnology.