Grantee Research Project Results
2024 Progress Report: Environmental Justice Implications of Public Transit Electrification and Changing Generation Portfolios in Arizona
EPA Grant Number: R840559Title: Environmental Justice Implications of Public Transit Electrification and Changing Generation Portfolios in Arizona
Investigators: Hernandez-Cortes, Danae , Sheriff, Glenn , Parker, Nathan
Institution: Arizona State University - Tempe
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: October 1, 2023 through April 23, 2025
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2023 through September 30,2024
Project Amount: $649,998
RFA: Drivers and Environmental Impacts of Energy Transitions in Underserved Communities. (2022) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Endocrine Disruptors , Environmental Engineering , Environmental Justice , Early Career Awards , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Air
Objective:
The International Panel on Climate Change emphasizes the crucial role for GHG mitigation from non-state actors such as municipalities. The transportation sector plays an important part in these plans. Electrification of public transportation can potentially reduce both GHG and conventional pollutants. With fossil fuel-fired electricity generation, reductions in tailpipe emissions are offset by increases in generation co-pollutants, raising environmental justice (EJ) concerns by potentially widening current exposure disparities for underserved communities. In this project, we develop a framework for evaluating changes in neighborhood air pollution distributions arising from alternative future scenarios for public transportation and electricity generation. Methods will enable policymakers to determine magnitudes of baseline and future disparities in co-pollutant exposure to incorporate EJ in the GHG mitigation planning process. The project will work closely with local transportation, air quality authorities, and community organizations to ensure both quality of data inputs as well as usefulness of outputs for stakeholder objectives.
Progress Summary:
- We have compiled the City of Phoenix transportation plans and mapped routes of potential new bus lines.
- We have developed a facilitation guideline for community workshops.
- We have organized 5 community-engagement workshops, with a total of 205 participants of 6 different communities (South Phoenix, Maryvale, Estrella, Laveen, Sunnyslope, and Mesa).
- We have developed workshop summaries for each workshop with the main results discussed among community member.
- We have developed an electricity dispatch model to model the electrification scenarios developed by the City of Phoenix and community members.
- We have obtained mobile emissions from transit bus fleet for the different decarbonization scenarios.
- We have obtained PM2.5 concentrations for different scenarios that were developed by community members.
Future Activities:
- Finish modeling community-driven scenarios
- Second-round community workshops to present results
- Full distributional analysis to understand environmental justice implications of decarbonization scenarios.
Supplemental Keywords:
Decarbonization, Environmental Justice, Community-engaged researchRelevant Websites:
n/a
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.