Reshaping California energy prices

Changes are coming to the way Californians are billed for electricity that—though controversial—will result in a more equitable rate system.

Utility companies across the state have been increasing retail electricity rates to pay for maintaining the electric grid and investing in measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change. But researchers Severin Borenstein, Meredith Fowlie, and James Sallee say using electricity price increases to pay for fixed infrastructure and policy costs is slowing progress on electrification and places a disproportionate burden on low-income households.

Borenstein, a professor at the Haas School of Business, told The Guardian that the current rate structure—along with the growing popularity of rooftop solar—has created a “death spiral” where rates will continue to climb. Households with solar directly benefit from rising rates when selling their excess power back to the grid; they also implicitly benefit by consuming their self-generated power, thus avoiding the growing grid and policy costs.

To address that gap, a new energy bill signed by Governor Gavin Newsom requires utilities and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to add an income-based fixed fee to support infrastructure costs like wildfire mitigation efforts and clean energy development. The idea was first proposed by Borenstein, Fowlie, and Sallee with nonprofit think tank Next 10 in 2021.

Under one proposal from the three largest electric companies in the state, lower-income households could save up to $300 per year, while higher-income households could experience a $500 annual increase. Sallee, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ARE), told the Los Angeles Times that those savings could encourage low- and middle-income households to adopt cleaner technologies—like electric cars and heat pumps—without worrying about their electric bill skyrocketing.

“This may feel like a loss if you are among those who will be asked to pay more, but it’s a big win for California and the climate,” wrote Fowlie, who is also a professor in ARE, in a San Diego Union-Tribune op-ed. She notes that the proposed reform would not increase utility revenues, but it would change how the same amount is collected.

The CPUC has until July 1 of next year to adopt a fixed-price structure.

— Mathew Burciaga

Wildlife and megafire

Top: Kendall Calhoun checks a camera trap. Middle and bottom: Motion-sensor camera traps captured images of fire ripping through Hopland Research and Extension Center in July 2018, and the return of wildlife in the months following. 

 Jackie Mara Beck (Calhoun) and Courtesy Brashares lab (fire and coyote)

In 2018, the Mendocino Complex Fire ripped through UC’s Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC), transforming the Northern California property’s grassy, oak-dotted hillsides into a smoldering, ash-covered landscape.

But just months later, motion-sensor camera traps operated by researchers in the lab of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) professor Justin Brashares observed animals returning to the area. “We were surprised that many species seem to be resistant [to the impacts of the fire],” said Kendall Calhoun, BS ’15 Molecular Environmental Biology; PhD ’23 ESPM.

Calhoun is lead author of a study that analyzed more than 500,000 camera grid images taken at the HREC in the years before and after the Mendocino Complex Fire to understand how the blaze impacted small- and medium-sized mammals on the property. Published this summer in Ecosphere, the study is one of the first to compare continuous wildlife observations made before and after a megafire. It is also one of few studies focusing on the impacts of megafires on California’s oak woodlands.

Six species—coyote, black-tailed jackrabbit, gray fox, racoon, striped skunk, and bobcat—were found to be resistant to the impacts of the fire, using the area in the same ways and with approximately the same frequency as they did before. Western gray squirrel and black-tailed deer, however, appeared to be more vulnerable.

Photos revealed many animals taking refuge in small patches of tree cover that were spared by the fire, which the authors believe helped those species remain in the area.

These findings highlight the importance of using forest management techniques like grazing and prescribed burning to reduce the intensity of wildfires, since lower severity fires are more likely to leave the tree canopy intact. “We can use these approaches to increase the chance that when fire does come through, it will leave behind some of these fragments,” said Brashares.

— Kara Manke

Biting Heat

Selectively-bred mosquitoes have been tested around the world as a solution to control the spread of Zika, dengue, and other mosquito-borne diseases. One method breeds Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which can transmit dengue, to carry Wolbachia—an insect-borne bacterium with natural virus-blocking properties. But this promising pest control method has a catch: it is significantly affected by heat.

A study published in the August issue of Nature Climate Change predicts that mosquito populations carrying the wMel strain of Wolbachia will remain stable for the next 30 years. Beyond that, the study says, the accelerated temperature increases expected under climate change could adversely affect the helpful bacteria, permitting the continued spread of dengue.

The research was led by then-graduate student Váleri Vásquez, PhD ’23 Energy and Resources Group, and professor Lara Kueppers, and is the first to investigate whether anthropogenic climate change could jeopardize the use of this important vector control technology. Vásquez, Kueppers, and their co-authors selected two locations where wMel-carrying mosquitoes are currently being used or tested for disease prevention—Cairns, Australia, and Nha Trang, Vietnam—and computationally modeled how those insect populations might respond as each region warms, based on existing laboratory data.

According to the study, the wMel strain begins to disappear from mosquito populations as average daily temperatures surpass 95 degrees Farenheit, and extended heat waves could lead to a notable decline in wMel density. The authors conclude that important actions for adapting this technology to future climate change include additional empirical study of its key biological mechanisms and operational changes such as more frequent releases of wMel-carrying Aedes aegypti.

— Mathew Burciaga

Accelerating California Climate Action

Top to bottom, left to right: Ted Grantham, Miranda Redmond, Daniel Kammen, and Peter Nelson. 

 Photographs by Mathew Burciaga (Grantham and Redmond); Elena Zhukova (Kammen); Brittany Hosea-Small (Nelson)

Four projects led by Rausser College of Natural Resources faculty have received large grants to advance research that builds climate resilience and equity in California.

A partnership between the University of California and the state of California, the California Climate Action Seed Grants and Matching Grants represent an $80 million investment in 38 projects across the UC and California State University system to spur the implementation of solutions that directly address California’s climate priorities.

The largest of the grants, at nearly $8.2 million, funds work spearheaded by Ted Grantham—an associate professor of Cooperative Extension in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM)—that is dedicated to broadening community involvement in the management of California’s water resources. The COEQWAL (COllaboratory for EQuity in Water ALlocations) project will develop new planning tools for sustainable, inclusive, and equitable water distribution for the state’s nearly 40 million residents.

“Our project aims to deliver actionable information about how water moves through the state and what it means for farms, cities, small communities, and ecosystems,” Grantham said. “We’re particularly interested in engaging communities that are vulnerable to water shortages but have not had a seat at the decision-making table.”

Miranda Redmond, an assistant professor in ESPM, was awarded nearly $2 million for a project that seeks to improve the resilience of California’s dryland forests and expand Indigenous forest stewardship in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

Daniel Kammen, a professor in Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, received $1.4 million to lead a project building tools to help cities and counties create climate action plans and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Peter Nelson, an assistant professor in ESPM and the Department of Ethnic Studies, received nearly $1 million to work with Tribal entities to expand the use of prescribed and cultural fire and increase Tribal leadership in fire stewardship programs.

“These projects highlight Berkeley’s commitment to climate justice and equity across multiple sectors,” said Rausser College Dean David Ackerly. “We’re excited to be partnering with the state of California to produce actionable research that can help address the state’s climate needs.”

— Kara Manke

Supporting Monarchs

Just north of campus, the Gill Tract is one of UC Berkeley’s oldest living laboratories and, since 2013, the host of a community-engaged urban agriculture project led by the Gill Tract Farm Coalition, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, and Rausser College of Natural Resources. But for far longer than that, the site has provided important habitat for migrating western monarch butterflies.

Undergraduate students plant a Monterey cypress at the Gill Tract.

 Photo by Mathew Burciaga

Every fall, butterflies cluster in the eucalyptus, cypress, and redwood trees on the Gill Tract, feed off the nectar-producing plants, and wait out the winter. “This place is a sanctuary and habitat for monarchs,” said Cole Rainey, a graduate student in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management who conducts research at the Gill Tract.

Unfortunately, the number of western monarchs in California has plummeted since the 1970s. Only 2,000 monarchs were counted at overwintering sites in California in 2020, with the Gill Tract supporting the largest number of migrating monarchs in the East Bay that year.

The University contracted monarch expert Stu Weiss to assess the site and recommend management and restoration actions to support the butterflies. Weiss suggested irrigating drought-stressed redwoods and adding new vegetation to the grove.

In May, a group of staff, community volunteers, student interns, and undergraduates in professor Kathryn DeMaster’s urban agroecology course worked together to plant more than a dozen Monterey cypress trees and two types of California native shrubs and installed an irrigation system. The additions will create habitat for monarchs and other pollinator species.

“The College is excited to help ameliorate the decline of monarch butterflies through this targeted planting of native trees at the Gill Tract,” said Dennis Baldocchi, executive associate dean and director of agriculture and natural resource programs at Rausser College.

“Monarchs are a symbol of ancestors in many cultures, so in a way, monarchs returning to the Gill Tract is a sign that we are doing something right,” Rainey said. “We’re trying to honor the ancestors of this place—and our own ancestors—through this work.”

—Mathew Burciaga

A pioneering naturalist

George Meléndez Wright as a forestry student on the UC Berkeley campus in the early 1920s. 

 Photo courtesy of Pamela Meléndez Wright Lloyd.

When George Meléndez Wright, BS 1927 Forestry, was hired by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) in 1927, the agency did not yet manage national parks as ecosystems, based on science, but rather as tourist attractions. For example, parks fed bears for spectators, killed wolves, cougars, coyotes, and other natural predators, and even kept animal zoos.

Wright, who studied forestry, wildlife biology, and conservation under UC Berkeley professors Walter Mulford and Joseph Grinnell, developed a different vision of the parks: natural-functioning landscapes where science and ecology guide the treatment and management of plants and wildlife.

By late 1929, Wright—the first Spanish-speaking professional in the NPS—had convinced NPS Director Horace Albright, BS 1912 Economics, to approve a multiyear survey of wildlife and plant conditions in the national parks, during which Wright and colleagues documented instances of questionable practices by NPS staff and other conflicts between animals and humans.

Albright later named Wright the first chief of the NPS Wildlife Division, based on campus in Hilgard Hall. He served in that position until his death in a car accident in 1936. Mountains in both Denali and Big Bend National Parks bear Wright’s name, as does the nonprofit George Wright Society, which promotes the conservation of parks, protected areas, and cultural and historic sites worldwide.

Conservation writer Jerry Emory, MA ’85 Geography, and other historians credit Wright with making the case for science-based natural resource management of the national parks. Emory’s latest book celebrates Wright’s vision and offers a historical account of a crucial period in the evolution of U.S. national parks and protection of wilderness.

Emory and Alison Forrestel, PhD ’13 Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Chief of Natural Resources and Science for Golden Gate National Recreation Area, discussed the origins and innovations of science in U.S. National Parks in the 2023 A. Starker Leopold Lecture in September.

Watch a video of the lecture on youtube. 

— Mathew Burciaga

Introducing the Master of Climate Solutions

Photo by Mathew Burciaga

As the impacts of climate change intensify, we desperately need leaders who can create and implement climate solutions around the world and across sectors. That’s the goal of the new and unparalleled Master of Climate Solutions (MCS) at Rausser College.

The one-year program will train those who already lead or aspire to take an active role in leadership positions in business, government, and nonprofit organizations tackling climate change. Drawing on the College’s interdisciplinary expertise, the curriculum will focus on analytical, data-driven, and science-based decision-making skills to enable impact-focused and equitable climate solutions. In addition to core coursework and a hands-on capstone project, students can select between three tracks: climate strategy and management, climate policy and politics, and a self-designed specialization.

A concurrent degree program with the Haas School of Business, which would allow students to earn both an MBA and the MCS in two and a half years, is in development.

Applications for the program will open in fall 2024.