The state of California aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Just over more than half of California's greenhouse gas emissions are emitted by the transportation sector, which includes both the actual burning of fuels in cars, trucks, and airplanes and also extracting and refining oil. In 2020, California was the seventh largest oil producer in the US and refines almost all the gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that it consumes. To achieve carbon neutrality, California will not only have to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions from its transportation demand, but also aim to significantly shrink emissions from its oil extraction and refining industries. This project evaluates this transition in the transportation fossil fuel supply-side sector under different policy scenarios to understand the implications for emissions, local environmental quality, health, equity, and labor.

This project is in collaboration with the Environmental Markets Solutions Lab (emLab) and UCSB’s Earth Science department, and is supported by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). A sister project focused on the transportation demand-side transition is led by UC’s Institute of Transportation Studies.

Final report: Final report and technical appendix on Zenodo. Released by the Governor's office in April 2021. 

Report: Synthesis report 

Presentation: Short presentation 

Project support: This project is supported by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA)

Project dates: 2020-2021

Research Area: Low carbon transportation