In the news
9.21.2010 - UC Davis Professor Daniel Sperling Receives 16th Annual Heinz Award
Daniel Sperling, Ph.D., founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis (ITS-Davis), is one of ten national environmental innovators to receive a prestigious Heinz Award, Theresa Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation announced today.
7.30.2010 - Tom Turrentine on the early market for electric cars and the next wave of buyers: The Globe and Mail
Tom Turrentine, director of the UC Davis Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Research Center, talks about early technology adopters and the broader audience for electric vehicles.
7.28.2010 - Dan Sperling notes beginning of electric revolution: Detroit Free Press
"Looks like joining the auto industry's electric revolution will be more affordable than expected..."
6.13.2010 - Big Oil can't get beyond petroleum: Washington Post
In this editorial and live Q&A, Dan Sperling and Deborah Gordon explain the mismatch between the project of developing alternative fuels and the corporate culture of major energy companies.
3.4.2010 - UC Davis PH&EV Research Center survey shows low level of range anxiety: msnbc.com
"Studies of drivers who already have electric cars are finding that they prefer the convenience of charging at home, and despite their vehicles' limited range, most are able to avoid public charging..."
2.18.2010 - Andy Frank comments on a new fast recharging system for hybrid vehicle batteries: Scientific American
"A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee has developed a prototype system they say could let drivers cut the time needed to fully recharge from a home electrical outlet by a factor of 10—from about eight hours to about 45 minutes..."
3.10.2009 - NY Times: Hydrogen Highway update with Joan Ogden
"Soon after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) took office in 2003, he set in motion a campaign promise to build, by 2010, a "hydrogen highway" composed of 150 to 200 fueling stations spaced every 20 miles along California's major highways...."
1-2.2009 - ITS-Davis bicycling research featured in Public Roads article on roundabouts
"National crash data demonstrate the importance of minimizing conflicts between motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. During the past decade, traffic crashes killed between 600 and 800 bicyclists nationwide annually. In 2007, crashes killed 698 bicyclists and injured another 43,000. Pedestrians fare much worse: 4,654 died in crashes in 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System...."
1.15.2009 - Dan Sperling on NPR’s Fresh Air: A Billion Cars and Counting
Listen to an interview with Dan Sperling about his book, co-authored with Deborah Gordon, Two Billion Cars: Driving toward Sustainability.
11.18.2008 - New York Times: How High Gas Prices Can Save the Car Industry
In this opinion piece, Dan Sperling and Deborah Gordon examine how a price floor on gasoline could help steer the U.S. to a more sustainable future.
10.30.2008 - Forbes.com: The Plug-In Paradox
"Hybrids can get us to 100mpg, but only if we can relearn how to drive..."
4.3.2007 - The Sacramento Bee: Big lift for state warming fight
California's plan to restrict greenhouse gas emissions cleared a major obstacle Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Dan Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, said the decision "reinforces what the American people are coming to believe, which is that climate change is an important challenge, and that it is appropriate, if not imperative, that government take more leadership."
4.1.2007 - Fortune Small Business: Will Green Play in Peoria?: This heartland city is betting its future on ethanol, wind, and other environmental industries.
Marshall Miller, a senior development engineer at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, cautions that it is not uncommon for battery technologies to "just never pan out."
2.27.2007 - San Francisco Chronicle: Blueprint for new Cal bioscience institute Plant researcher from Stanford likely to be director
Article about the establishment of UC's new British Petroleum-funded Energy Biosciences Institute, to be staffed by a "brain trust of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists." BP will contribute $500 million over the next 10 years to finance the research institute -- a joint operation among UC Berkeley, the University of Illinois, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and BP. (No UC Davis mention.)
2.13.2007 - Davis Enterprise: UC Davis expert named to air board
The governor has named UC Davis transportation expert Daniel Sperling as a member of the California Air Resources Board, a regulatory agency widely seen as a global leader in clean-air and climate-change studies.
2.2.2007 - The Sacramento Bee: Hybrid helper: Bank of America will offer $3,000 incentive to any of its 185,000 employees who buy a qualifying vehicle
Bank of America will be offering a $3,000 incentive to those of its employees who buy environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles. Christopher Knittel, an economics professor at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies said that a Honda Civic hybrid can cost $5,000 more than the traditional model.
1.27.2007 - San Francisco Chronicle: How the governor's alternative fuels plan could cut carbon; UC Davis expert offers up ideas on how the state could carry out Schwarzenegger greenhouse gas order
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order to cut the "carbon intensity" of transportation fuel sold in California. The critical components of how to actually make this work haven't been figured out yet, but Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, is co-chairing a committee that will draft ways to implement Schwarzenegger's order.
1.25.2007 - San Francisco Chronicle: Energy experts knock Bush plan for ethanol as gas substitute; They say it would be costly and inefficient and might force choice: corn for food or fuel
Although Bush's call for an increase in the use of alternative fuels sounds like a good idea to reduce our dependency on oil, experts aren't so sure that ethanol as another source is the answer. Anthony Eggert of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies is quoted in the article.
1.24.2007 - Daily Democrat: UCD team briefs Congress on cars and alternative fuels
A team of UC Davis transportation experts have traveled to the Capitol this week to brief members of Congress on the status of clean car and truck fuels and technologies; they intend to critically examine the future of automotive technologies and fuels that have the potential to dramatically reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gases in the transportation sector - including biofuels, hybrid electric technologies and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
1.23.2007 - San Mateo County Times: Will Bush go green in State of the Union? Global warming likely to be focus of speech
The Bush administration's hints that the president will deliver a "green" State of the Union address "might be a Nixon-going-to-China story, but it's hard to imagine it," said Dan Sperling, director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at University of California, Davis.
1.20.2007 - The Sacramento Bee: Fuels to go 'low-carb'; UC Davis scientists are among those working to flesh out a campaign to curb greenhouse gas emissions
The governor's recent cal for a "low carbon" fuel plan to lighten California's greenhouse gas load is thin on specifics, so it's up to a team of scientists at UC Davis and another school to start fleshing out what will hopefully be a plan to improve the environment. "Once you get into the details of it, it gets complicated," said Dan Sparling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies and co-leader of the fuels standard project.
9.26.2006 - RenewableEnergyAccess.com: Chevron Pursues Next-Generation Biofuels: Chevron to invest $25 M in UC Davis to develop transportation fuels from cellulosic biomass.
The multi-million dollar investment at UC Davis is the latest in a string of joint ventures between major corporations, universities and research institutes. Quotes Barry Klein, vice chancellor for research, and Daniel Sperling, director of UC Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies.
9.19.2006 - Davis Enterprise: UCD gets $25M for biofuels
Page One story. UC Davis researchers will spend the next five years developing clean and affordable, renewable transportation fuels with up to $25 million in funding from Chevron Corp. Story includes Barry Klein, Daniel Sperling, Bryan Jenkins, Sharon Shoemaker.
9.5.2006 - Oakland Tribune: Your commute: Is it really worth it?
Nearly half of commuters enjoy the drive, according to surveys performed of Bay Area commuters by the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis. Institute associate director Pat Mokhtarian and UC Davis economist Chris Knittle share their opinions on commuting.
7.28.2006 - Oakland Tribune: Hybrids save gas, but also cost more
"Check out http://www.fueleconomygov.com," recommends Tom Turrentine, a research anthropologist at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, in this article about the low fuel costs for hybrid vehicles.
6.9.2006 - PBS.org: "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Q&A: Daniel Sperling on Cars of the Future
This Web story advancing a broadcast story this weekend is an interview with Daniel Sperling, who is director of the Institute of Transportation Studies; associate director of the Energy Efficiency Center and professor of Transportation Engineering and Environmental Policy at the University of California, Davis.