IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v14y2023i1d10.1038_s41467-023-37080-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

U.S. West Coast droughts and heat waves exacerbate pollution inequality and can evade emission control policies

Author

Listed:
  • Amir Zeighami

    (North Carolina State University)

  • Jordan Kern

    (North Carolina State University)

  • Andrew J. Yates

    (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)

  • Paige Weber

    (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)

  • August A. Bruno

    (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)

Abstract

Droughts reduce hydropower production and heatwaves increase electricity demand, forcing power system operators to rely more on fossil fuel power plants. However, less is known about how droughts and heat waves impact the county level distribution of health damages from power plant emissions. Using California as a case study, we simulate emissions from power plants under a 500-year synthetic weather ensemble. We find that human health damages are highest in hot, dry years. Counties with a majority of people of color and counties with high pollution burden (which are somewhat overlapping) are disproportionately impacted by increased emissions from power plants during droughts and heat waves. Taxing power plant operations based on each plant’s contribution to health damages significantly reduces average exposure. However, emissions taxes do not reduce air pollution damages on the worst polluting days, because supply scarcity (caused by severe heat waves) forces system operators to use every power plant available to avoid causing a blackout.

Suggested Citation

  • Amir Zeighami & Jordan Kern & Andrew J. Yates & Paige Weber & August A. Bruno, 2023. "U.S. West Coast droughts and heat waves exacerbate pollution inequality and can evade emission control policies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37080-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37080-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37080-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-023-37080-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Su, Yufei & Kern, Jordan D. & Reed, Patrick M. & Characklis, Gregory W., 2020. "Compound hydrometeorological extremes across multiple timescales drive volatility in California electricity market prices and emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    2. Sengupta, Manajit & Xie, Yu & Lopez, Anthony & Habte, Aron & Maclaurin, Galen & Shelby, James, 2018. "The National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 51-60.
    3. Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur & Nicholas Z. Muller & Andrew J. Yates, 2020. "Decompositions and Policy Consequences of an Extraordinary Decline in Air Pollution from Electricity Generation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 244-274, November.
    4. Craig, Michael & McDonald-Buller, Elena & Webster, Mort, 2016. "Technology adoption under time-differentiated market-based instruments for pollution control," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 23-34.
    5. Spencer Banzhaf & Lala Ma & Christopher Timmins, 2019. "Environmental Justice: The Economics of Race, Place, and Pollution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 185-208, Winter.
    6. Shupeng Zhu & Michael Mac Kinnon & Andrea Carlos-Carlos & Steven J. Davis & Scott Samuelsen, 2022. "Decarbonization will lead to more equitable air quality in California," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Karen Clay, Akshaya Jha, Nicholas Muller, and Randall Walsh, 2019. "External Costs of Transporting Petroleum Products: Evidence from Shipments of Crude Oil from North Dakota by Pipelines and Rail," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harding, Matthew & Kettler, Kyle & Lamarche, Carlos & Ma, Lala, 2023. "The (alleged) environmental and social benefits of dynamic pricing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 574-593.
    2. Holland, Stephen P. & Mansur, Erin T. & Muller, Nicholas Z. & Yates, Andrew J., 2021. "The environmental benefits of transportation electrification: Urban buses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    3. Godzinski, Alexandre & Suarez Castillo, Milena, 2021. "Disentangling the effects of air pollutants with many instruments," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. Hausman, Catherine & Stolper, Samuel, 2021. "Inequality, information failures, and air pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Burlig, Fiona PhD & Bushnell, James PhD & Rapson, David PhD & Wolfram, Catherine PhD, 2020. "Supercharged? Electricity Demand and the Electrification of Transportation in California," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt9t62s2sd, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    6. Neupane, Deependra & Kafle, Sagar & Karki, Kaji Ram & Kim, Dae Hyun & Pradhan, Prajal, 2022. "Solar and wind energy potential assessment at provincial level in Nepal: Geospatial and economic analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 278-291.
    7. Stephen Jarvis & Olivier Deschenes & Akshaya Jha, 2022. "The Private and External Costs of Germany’s Nuclear Phase-Out," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 1311-1346.
    8. Vincent Cheruiyot Kirui1 & Dr. Paul Kipyegon Sang, 2020. "The Quest for Socioeconomic Development in Kenya: A Review of the Impact of Public Infrastructure on the Voyage," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(11), pages 145-158, November.
    9. Gueymard, Christian A. & Bright, Jamie M. & Lingfors, David & Habte, Aron & Sengupta, Manajit, 2019. "A posteriori clear-sky identification methods in solar irradiance time series: Review and preliminary validation using sky imagers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 412-427.
    10. Wang Chang & Yun Zhu & Che-Jen Lin & Saravanan Arunachalam & Shuxiao Wang & Jia Xing & Tingting Fang & Shicheng Long & Jinying Li & Geng Chen, 2022. "Environmental Justice Assessment of Fine Particles, Ozone, and Mercury over the Pearl River Delta Region, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-15, August.
    11. Vallianos, Charalampos & Candanedo, José & Athienitis, Andreas, 2023. "Application of a large smart thermostat dataset for model calibration and Model Predictive Control implementation in the residential sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PA).
    12. Zunian Luo, 2022. "Cap or No Cap? What Can Governments Do to Promote EV Sales?," Papers 2212.08137, arXiv.org.
    13. Koh, Rachel & Kern, Jordan & Galelli, Stefano, 2022. "Hard-coupling water and power system models increases the complementarity of renewable energy sources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    14. Liotta,Charlotte & Avner,Paolo & Viguié,Vincent & Selod,Harris & Hallegatte,Stephane, 2022. "Climate Policy and Inequality in Urban Areas : Beyond Incomes," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10185, The World Bank.
    15. Craig, Michael & Guerra, Omar J. & Brancucci, Carlo & Pambour, Kwabena Addo & Hodge, Bri-Mathias, 2020. "Valuing intra-day coordination of electric power and natural gas system operations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    16. Zimmerman, Ryan & Panda, Anurag & Bulović, Vladimir, 2020. "Techno-economic assessment and deployment strategies for vertically-mounted photovoltaic panels," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    17. Can Zou & Jun Tai & Li Chen & Yue Che, 2020. "An Environmental Justice Assessment of the Waste Treatment Facilities in Shanghai: Incorporating Counterfactual Decomposition into the Hedonic Price Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-12, April.
    18. Anne Christine Lusk & Xin Li & Qiming Liu, 2023. "If the Government Pays for Full Home-Charger Installation, Would Affordable-Housing and Middle-Income Residents Buy Electric Vehicles?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-26, March.
    19. David Popp & Jacquelyn Pless & Ivan Haščič & Nick Johnstone, 2020. "Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Energy Sector," NBER Chapters, in: The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth, pages 175-248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Sanzana Tabassum & Tanvin Rahman & Ashraf Ul Islam & Sumayya Rahman & Debopriya Roy Dipta & Shidhartho Roy & Naeem Mohammad & Nafiu Nawar & Eklas Hossain, 2021. "Solar Energy in the United States: Development, Challenges and Future Prospects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-65, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37080-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.