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Determinants And Effects Of Offset Usage Within The California Cap-And-Trade System – A Firm-Level Analysis, Adarsh Srinivasan
Determinants And Effects Of Offset Usage Within The California Cap-And-Trade System – A Firm-Level Analysis, Adarsh Srinivasan
CMC Senior Theses
This thesis examines the determinants of the usage of carbon offsets within the California cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions. It also investigates the relationship between a firm’s investment in offsets and its financials for publicly traded companies. Entity-level data from 2013 to 2020 was used, which was sourced from the California Air Resources Board. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate factors that correlated with offset usage and whether offset usage correlated with EBITDA. Dummy variables indicating geographic location and economic sector of each entity were used as controls. The analysis found that total covered emissions and privately owned …
Warehouses In The Inland Empire: Displacing Land And Life, Katherine Gelsey
Warehouses In The Inland Empire: Displacing Land And Life, Katherine Gelsey
Pomona Senior Theses
The Inland Empire in Southern California embodies unique spatial and social configurations as a consequence of how settler colonialism has manifested locally in the region since the Spanish Mission Period. This work uses GIS software to estimate patterns of land conversion for residential, agricultural, and warehouse land from 2012 to 2022. Preliminary analysis suggests that thousands of people have been displaced by warehouse expansion over the ten-year period. In the twenty-first century, the Southern California logistics industry continues processes of land dispossession and racialized labor exploitation through displacing agricultural and residential land, exposing disproportionately low-income Black and Latine communities living …
Groundwater Monitoring Analysis And Management Recommendations In California: Cuyama And Santa Cruz Mid-County, Kayla M. Souza
Groundwater Monitoring Analysis And Management Recommendations In California: Cuyama And Santa Cruz Mid-County, Kayla M. Souza
Master's Projects and Capstones
Groundwater is an essential water resource, accounting for about 40 percent of supply in California and 80 percent in the Central Coast hydrologic region, but significant monitoring data gaps have limited sustainable management efforts. Twenty-four basins within the Central Coast hydrologic region were identified as critically overdrafted in 2014. For this study, two basins were chosen based on differing sustainability concerns so that a comparative analysis could be performed on the groundwater monitoring methods. I obtained original groundwater elevation data reported (2000-2020) from the various groundwater monitoring organization wells to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) within the Cuyama …
Forest Offsets In The California Carbon Market: Challenges Of A Market Based Climate Solution, Eric Warmoth
Forest Offsets In The California Carbon Market: Challenges Of A Market Based Climate Solution, Eric Warmoth
CMC Senior Theses
Within California’s cap-and-trade program, forest offsets allow landowners to earn carbon credits for protecting forests that sequester carbon and sell these credits to polluters that can then emit one additional ton of carbon. The state’s top regulator, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), is tasked with overseeing cap-and-trade and the forest offset system. CARB is currently updating the state’s Climate Change Scoping Plan to set California on track to achieve its 2030 climate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels. CARB is approving forest offsets that overestimate emissions reductions, while allowing companies to continue polluting in …
Assessing California Commercial Fishing Community Well-Being In The Context Of Marine Protected Area (Mpa) Formation, Samantha Cook
Assessing California Commercial Fishing Community Well-Being In The Context Of Marine Protected Area (Mpa) Formation, Samantha Cook
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
Marine protected areas (MPAs)—defined geographic areas where fishing and harvesting activity is limited or restricted—have emerged as a popular marine biodiversity and climate resilience strategy worldwide. MPA monitoring efforts often follow MPA designation to help inform the adaptive management of MPAs and MPA networks. In 2012, California completed the largest statewide system of MPAs to date, consisting of 124 MPAs covering 16% of state waters. Following MPA implementation, the state initiated a long-term monitoring program (2019-2022) to help inform the 10-year MPA management review. This two-chapter thesis presents findings from a state-funded project to conduct long-term socioeconomic monitoring for human …
The Adoption Of Zero-Emissions Vehicles By Low-Income Consumers In California: An Outcome Evaluation Of The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, Julie Nguyen
Master's Projects
Is the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) program achieving its planned outcomes of accelerating the adoption of Zero-Emissions Vehicles (ZEVs) by low-income consumers in California? This research will evaluate what effect additional CVRP rebates provided to low-income consumers have on their adoptions of ZEVs. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the CVRP rebates are making it feasible and compelling enough for low-income consumers to adopt ZEVs at a rate that will lead to California meeting its greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Evaluation Of Restoration Techniques And Management Practices Of Tule Pertaining To Eco-Cultural Use, Irene A. Vasquez
Evaluation Of Restoration Techniques And Management Practices Of Tule Pertaining To Eco-Cultural Use, Irene A. Vasquez
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
Tule (Schoenoplectus sp.) is a native plant commonly used by California tribes and Indigenous people throughout the world (Macía & Balslev 2000). Ecological, social and regulatory threats to its use in contemporary Indigenous culture highlight major issues concerning natural resource management. My ancestral homeland, what is now Yosemite National Park, stands as a figurehead in the intersection of land management and Indigenous peoples. An important element of Traditional Ecological Management (TEM) for quality basketry materials is prescribed fire, an element western science is increasingly acknowledging for creating a more biodiverse and heterogeneous landscape. This research was conducted in Mariposa and …
Ecological Sustainability Within California's Improved Forest Management Carbon Offsets Program, Cory Hertog
Ecological Sustainability Within California's Improved Forest Management Carbon Offsets Program, Cory Hertog
Sustainability and Social Justice
Forest Carbon offsets are being used as a climate change mitigation strategy in multiple programs around the world. But, are programs setup in a way that are ecologically sustainable? This paper reviews concepts pertinent to ecologically sustainable forest management and then examines if Improved Forest Management Carbon offset policies and projects within the California emissions trading scheme are setup in an ecologically sustainable manner. After a review of the Improved Forest Management Protocol and 31 project documents, it is apparent that policies and projects promote aspects of ecologically sustainable management. However, there is room for improvement when managing for natural …
Protecting And Maintaining Silicon Valley’S Liquid Gold, Paul Mark Fulcher
Protecting And Maintaining Silicon Valley’S Liquid Gold, Paul Mark Fulcher
Master's Projects
Public sector leaders and decision makers in the California water industry have learned from previous severe drought conditions that to sustain water supplies during extremely dry seasons, there is a substantial need for behavioral changes associated with water conservation efforts among the businesses and residents of the community to maintain an adequate water supply. The intent of this study is to compare four California water agencies that have been designated as sustainable groundwater agencies (GSA), and determine what current programs and/or practices those agencies are using to meet the mandated requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 (Act …
Examining The Effects Of Policy Interventions On Increasing Electric Vehicle Adoption In California, Ethan G. Mcdermott
Examining The Effects Of Policy Interventions On Increasing Electric Vehicle Adoption In California, Ethan G. Mcdermott
Master's Projects and Capstones
Any significant effort to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gasses must address the growing concern of the transportation sector’s inability to meaningfully reduce its emissions contribution. A major shift in the primary fuel used in the sector away from petroleum-based fuel to electricity is one potential way the sector can lower its emissions and transition into a sustainable future. However, a number of barriers face the electric vehicle market, including competing against an already mature vehicle market, battling consumer preferences, and overcoming technical challenges. This paper examines several policy proposals to combat these barriers and examines the impact similar policies …
Institutionalizing Environmental Justice: Race, Place, And The National Environmental Policy Act, Keith K. Miyake
Institutionalizing Environmental Justice: Race, Place, And The National Environmental Policy Act, Keith K. Miyake
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In this dissertation, I examine ways that the US National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and its primary enforcement mechanism, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, have reshaped the state as a site for racial and environmental conflict by institutionalizing a particular form of environmental justice within governmental decision making processes. Combining archival methods and legal analysis, I develop three case studies involving community struggles over the social production of space that each engage the EIA process to different effect. The case studies were selected based on what they reveal about the ways that the environmental justice framework intersects …
Ballot-Box Environmentalism Across The Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand For Environmental Public Goods, William Skyler Lewis
Ballot-Box Environmentalism Across The Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand For Environmental Public Goods, William Skyler Lewis
Pomona Senior Theses
In California, voters frequently face ballot propositions dealing directly or indirectly with environmental protection. Records of these votes provide powerful evidence of the character of voters’ demand and willingness-to-pay for environmental public goods (e.g., air quality, watershed ecosystem services, parks and recreation), and have been used in past environmental econometrics research to produce aggregated income and price effect estimates. Using neighborhood-level voting records on seven environmental-related ballot propositions in California between 2002 and 2010, this econometric study investigates the nature of voters’ demand for environmental public goods, focusing on the effect of household income on pro-environment voting. Unlike previous studies, …
Increasing Energy Efficiency In Existing Residential Buildings: A Case Study Of The Community Home Energy Retrofit Project (Cherp), Jenna Perelman
Increasing Energy Efficiency In Existing Residential Buildings: A Case Study Of The Community Home Energy Retrofit Project (Cherp), Jenna Perelman
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis uses a case study of the Community Home Energy Retrofit Project (CHERP) and it analyzes the larger statewide effort in California to increase energy efficiency in existing residential buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CHERP’s primary strategy is to embed itself into a community, educate residents on the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, and inspire them to take energy-saving actions in their own homes. It then builds its own community by connecting like-minded individuals together and provides an opportunity for them to exercise their political agency. This thesis analyzes CHERP’s effort in the context of the political, social, …
California's Foreign Relations, Christopher Gaarder
California's Foreign Relations, Christopher Gaarder
CMC Senior Theses
Globalization has significantly increased the number of stakeholders in transnational issues in recent decades. The typical list of the new players in global affairs often includes non-state actors like non-governmental organizations, multinational corporations, and international organizations. Sub-national governments, however, have been given relatively little attention even though they, too, have a significant interest and ability to shape the increasing flow of capital, goods, services, people, and ideas that has so profoundly influenced the global political economy in recent decades. California, arguably the most significant among sub-national governments – its economy would be seventh or eighth in the world at $2.2 …
The Full Cost Of Renewables: Managing Wind Integration Costs In California, William Savage
The Full Cost Of Renewables: Managing Wind Integration Costs In California, William Savage
Pomona Senior Theses
Wind power will be an important component of California's aggressive strategies to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets by the year 2020. However, the costs of integrating wind power's variable and uncertain output are often ignored. I argue that California must take prudent action to understand, minimize, and allocate wind integration costs. A review of numerous studies suggests that for wind penetration levels below 20%, integration costs should remain modest. However, costs are heavily dependent on market structure, and I suggest numerous ways that California can optimize its market design to manage wind integration costs.
Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Greening An Older Modest-Sized Home, Delilah Zoe Leval
Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Greening An Older Modest-Sized Home, Delilah Zoe Leval
Master's Theses
This professional project estimates the upfront costs and utility savings expected from greening an approximately 1,100 square foot home built in the 1950s in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two sets of upgrades (alternative and original) were compared for costs and benefits. The alternative set (which included ceiling insulation and omitted upgrading to dual-pane windows) clearly out performed the original set. The alternative set would be expected to reduce resident utility bills by 28% annually, and to prevent approximately 2,700 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The water efficiency upgrades were the best performing group of upgrades, as they had …