Evaluating Policy Scenarios for California's Fuel Markets

As California's fuel markets continue to shift, policymakers face difficult tradeoffs with real consequences for consumers, workers, and communities. This convening kicks off an initiative to give state policymakers a shared factual grounding in how California's fuel markets work ahead of the next legislative session. We will bring together researchers from universities across California, public interest and community organizations, labor, and state government to discuss how to balance competing goals related to affordability, public health, environment, competitive markets, local jobs, and economic development.

The program includes research presentation panels on the state of California's fuel markets, a policy keynote, a stakeholder perspectives panel — featuring voices from communities, workers, and public health and environmental groups — and a government roundtable. We'll wrap up with an open discussion to synthesize takeaways toward a shared menu of policy options.

Convening hosts

Dr. Paasha Mahdavi

Associate Professor of Political Science; Director, Energy Governance and Political Economy (EGAPE) Lab; Co-Founder, The 2035 Initiative at UC Santa Barbara

UC Santa Barbara

Dr. Jeremy Martin

Director of Fuels Policy, Clean Transportation Program

Union of Concerned Scientists

Researchers and panelists from UC Santa Barbara, Stanford, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and state and non-profit partners will be announced as the full lineup is confirmed.

Program for the day

Session timing is preliminary and may shift slightly as the final program is confirmed.