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UCLA epidemiologist Dr. Anne Rimoin joined KTLA News to discuss California’s strong and persistent COVID spike this summer in a new video. She shared what we need to know, along…

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Most California homes can achieve electrification with strategic load management, eliminating the need for costly panel upgrades in a majority of cases, according to new research published in Energy Policy. The study, led by Eric Fournier, research director at UCLA’s California Center for Sustainable Communities, analyzed the capacity of existing electrical panels in homes across the state. These panels limit a home’s power draw at any given time, and their capacity is crucial for electrification — increased electric appliance use can strain older or undersized panels.

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UCLA environmental law professor William Boyd wrote about widespread contamination by PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” and the failures of environmental regulation at Legal Planet and the Law & Political Economy Blog.…

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Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and founding director of the university’s California Center for Sustainable Communities, said that LA County needs to provide more public open space close to where people live. That way, city dwellers need not drive to the mountains in such high numbers in order to enjoy nature. Another way of limiting visitation, she said, might lie in initiating the kind of permitting strategy used at other popular parks, such as Yosemite, which caps guest numbers per day. Pincetl believes the importance of the lands to Indigenous people only heightens the need for better stewardship by all visitors and caretakers. “These spaces have historic cultural value and meaning for tribal people, and we’re asking them to share,” she said. “How do we graciously acknowledge their generosity in sharing this land with us by taking good care of it ourselves?”

Awards

The California Center for Sustainable Communities, along with UCLA research teams and departments, has been selected as a finalist for the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) 2024 Power Player Awards in the Equity category.