Data From: Emissions redistribution and environmental justice implications of California's Clean Vehicle Rebate Project

Vehicle electrification is expected to reduce, in aggregate, emissions of
greenhouse gases and criteria air pollutants. However, increased
electricity generation to support new electric vehicles introduces
possible redistribution of point-source emissions from mobile vehicles to
electric generating units such that emissions may decrease in some
locations and increase in others, with implications for equity. The
potential for vehicle electrification to thereby shift the spatial
distribution of air-pollution burdens has been previously noted, but
analyses have yet to evaluate specific implemented climate policies. Here,
we develop a novel model to analyze the implications of California’s Clean
Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) for emissions of greenhouse gases and
criteria air pollutants, both in aggregate and in their distribution.
Analyzing rebates for 2010–2021, we find that the CVRP reduced aggregate
statewide emissions of CO2, NOX, and SO2 and increased aggregate
statewide emissions of primary PM2.5. However, changes
in air pollution are not distributed equally: our results indicate that,
as a result of the CVRP, net primary PM2.5, NOX, and SO2 emissions
reductions disproportionately occur in Least Disadvantaged Communities, as
compared to Disadvantaged Communities, with community disadvantage defined
according to CalEnviroScreen 4.0 per California legislation. If the
current spatial distribution of electric vehicle rebates remains
unchanged, we project that these inequities will continue through the
state’s legislative goal of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on
California roadways by 2025, even with increased cleanliness of the
electricity sources for new vehicles. Increased uptake of electric
vehicles in communities facing the highest air pollution exposure, along
with accelerated clean-energy generation, could ameliorate associated
environmental inequities.