By Jessica Goodheart for Capital and Main.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Capital and Main-Public News Service Collaboration

When Chevrolet debuted the Volt, a plug-in hybrid, back in 2011, Brett Beard began installing chargers in the homes of Southern California's electric vehicle early adopters. It was a niche group. "We were in movie stars' garages," remembers Beard.

Now the state is expected to need more than 1.2 million chargers by 2030 to meet the fueling demands of the 7.5 million electric vehicles anticipated to be on California roads, according to the California Energy Commission. The work of building out California's EV charging infrastructure has become essential to meeting the state's climate goals and to alleviating the "range anxiety" of a broader public traversing the state in their battery-powered cars.

The hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars budgeted to create that infrastructure also represent jobs for the union electricians at Beard's Santa Fe Springs contracting company, as well as thousands of electrical workers across the state. In the next eight years, according to one estimate, 2,609 California electrical workers, or 6.8% of the existing electrical workforce, will be employed in installing EV chargers.

With this sudden boost in spending, labor and environmental advocates have been working to pair public investment in EV infrastructure with training standards as a way to ensure the quality of the work and high road jobs. Assembly Bill 841, sponsored by California Assemblyman Phil Ting in 2020, requires at least a quarter of certified electricians on publicly funded or authorized projects to have participated in an 18-hour course, known as the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP). The skills requirement represents a broader effort by labor advocates to attach credentialing standards to jobs related to climate investment.

Beard took part in the early version of EVITP back in 2012. It was invaluable instruction at a time when the technology was little understood by his colleagues. "Electricians have pickup trucks," he points out. "They don't have electric vehicles."

Beard has since taken the class several times more as the technology has evolved. He and other supporters of the requirement say it is necessary to ensure that vehicle charging is both safe and reliable. Beard is watching the move to electrify heavy-duty trucks and school buses, as well as the development of "bidirectional" charging that allows car batteries to send electricity back to the grid. Charging stations with as many as 20 dispensers all powered by one large charger are on the horizon. "So you're talking about a huge voltage," similar to a battery storage system, says Beard. As increasing power demands are placed on the charging infrastructure, "Having the EVITP is going to save lives," he adds.

The requirement that at least a quarter of electricians on publicly funded jobs take an online class at a cost of $275 may seem like an uncontroversial proposition. But not everyone is enthusiastic. The Electric Vehicle Charging Association (EVCA), an industry group that represents companies like ChargePoint, initially opposed the requirement before withdrawing its opposition in 2020. Reed Addis, manager of EVCA, says his members remain "cranky" about the obligation placed on them. "We don't know of shoddy electrical work or shoddy installation work that would require this. So from our perspective, it was like, where's the impetus for this policy?"

The EVITP was launched in 2012 after a series of reports of electric cars catching fire. Some of those fires originated in the vehicle, but others started in the electrical systems of the buildings where cars were charging, leading to a recognition by the auto manufacturers that the electricians who were installing charging stations needed better training, according to Bernie Kotlier, national co-chair of EVITP. Based in Michigan, the nonprofit that runs the training program is guided by electrical contractors, electricians, first responders, utilities, electric vehicle makers, EV charging manufacturers and others.

Kotlier says there is no central repository of code violations, electrocutions, fires or deaths related to installation errors. Still, over the years, there have been scattered press reports of fires that have broken out while cars were charging that have not been battery-related.

In 2020, a child suffered minor injuries after a fire erupted in a Cerritos, California, garage where a Tesla was charging; it was thought to be related to the home's aluminum wiring. In 2019, a fire erupted in San Antonio, Texas, due to an overloaded electrical system. Such press reports about fires connected to electrical vehicles, however rare, also set back the industry, says Kotlier, who is also an executive director on the Labor Management Cooperation Committee of IBEW and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) California & Nevada. He says there are 2,300 EVITP-certified electricians across California, already enough to meet the state's infrastructure goals.

The EVITP program is supported by the 750,000-member International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, though it is not a union program. Kotlier is keen to point out that participants need only be state-certified electricians to be eligible for an EVITP certification. There are other pathways to become certified besides the union's apprenticeship programs.

Yet some supporters see the EVITP requirement as a way to maintain job quality standards at a time when the move away from fossil fuels could cost middle-class jobs at refineries, power plants and in the auto industry. The goal should be to show "that the clean economy is better than the dirty economy that we have," said Marc Boom, director of federal affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "That transition is not going to be complete until there are good, high-quality jobs that come along with it."

The national environmental group joined the electricians' union in February in urging Congress to include an EVITP certification requirement in the Build Back Better Act. The Biden administration is recommending the program as a way to ensure "safe and high quality" workmanship under the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is expected to fund 500,000 EV charging stations nationwide at a cost of $7.5 billion.

Carol Zabin, an economist with the UC Berkeley Labor Center's Green Economy Program, explains it this way. The EVITP program is "basically building on the state-certified apprenticeship system," an earn-while-you-learn workforce training system that combines classroom training with years of on-the-job training. "Certification can really support good wages, and it does identify skills that help employers know what they're hiring," says Zabin.

But EVCA's Addis sees the EVITP requirement as "elitist" and costly at a time when the industry is trying to make electric cars as affordable as possible. "Because they've picked this particular program, given it a monopoly, you're not going to see as many people of color being able to participate and get that type of training," says Addis, who complained the test is hard to access for those in rural areas.

There is no data available about the demographics of EVITP-certified electricians in California, according to the California Energy Commission. The CEC has recently partnered with California community colleges to offer EVITP exams in rural areas of the state. Previously, the test was offered only in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Diana Limon, dressed in a pale gray suit, is businesslike and direct. She's the training director for the largest school for electricians in the nation: the Electrical Training Institute of Southern California (ETI) in Commerce, California. The facility is jointly run by NECA and IBEW Local 11, whose jurisdiction covers auto-centric L.A. County. (Note: IBEW Local 11 is a financial supporter of this website.) The apprentices at ETI look a lot like the county, except there are more Latinos and fewer whites and Asian and Pacific Islanders. The current class of about 1,900 is 69% Latino, 9% Black, 4% Asian and Pacific Islander and 17% white. About 125 IBEW apprentices completed the EVITP program last year. They will receive their EVITP credential once the state fully certifies them as electricians.

"I think for us it's always about raising the standards," Limon says of EVITP. "When we do something wrong, people can be shocked, they can be electrocuted, or somebody else can be injured as a result of that, or there could be fire. So public safety is important to us and the safety of our members is important to us."

The Electrical Training Institute is located in the solar and battery-powered building where Frank de Leon apprenticed as an electrician beginning in 2004. He said he first learned about the possibility of becoming an electrician through the union's 2nd Call program, which sends members into the prisons to do outreach. "The union electrician job was like a dream come true for me," says de Leon, who thinks his basic math and interview skills helped him land the apprenticeship.

Now he's an EVITP-certified foreman with a union electrical contractor that specializes in EV charging. He says he will soon be installing 40 chargers at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County, where he was confined for 25 months in the late 1990s.

Jessica Goodheart wrote this article for Capital and Main.


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A new report ranks Illinois first among 11 Midwestern states for the amount of clean power capacity under construction, and second for new clean power capacity.

The American Clean Energy Association said wind, solar, and energy storage plants currently provide almost 14% of the electricity produced in Illinois, potentially powering more than 3 million homes with clean energy.

Jeff Danielson vice president of advocacy for the Illinois Clean Grid Association, said some of the benefits of clean energy end up in consumers' pockets.

"There's both a climate benefit, but there's also an economic benefit," Danielson explained. "When you're adding low-cost energy to the grid, that eventually accrues to folks that are paying the utility bills."

Danielson pointed out clean energy is a leading source of job creation and investment, bringing nearly 17,000 good-paying jobs and $17 billion dollars in capital investments to Illinois. In terms of clean power operating capacity, the report showed Texas and California still lead the way nationally.

According to the report, Illinois added 485 megawatts of clean power to the grid in the first half of this year. Two years ago, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.

Danielson stressed it establishes a statewide goal of 100% by 2050 and allows for more renewable energy projects to be built.

"Notably is what's in the pipeline, otherwise known as clean power capacity under construction," Danielson emphasized. "I think CEJA had a clear role in creating those greater incentives to bring projects online in Illinois."

Danielson said clean power also provides extra income to farmers, ranchers and other private landowners through $58 million a year in lease payments. He said groups like the Clean Grid Alliance work to match investors with green projects and facilitate renewable energy growth.

"Clean Grid Alliance is a nonprofit focused on utility-scale wind, solar, battery-storage projects, and all things to do with the grid, which ties it all together," Danielson added.

By Debra J. Rosenthal for The Conversation.
Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Ohio News Connection for the Public News Service-Conversation collaboration..

Among the world's ever-expanding array of board games, a small but growing number deal with climate change. But are these games any good?

As a professor of English who specializes in environmental literature, I set out to learn how well these board games portray the perils that global warming poses to the planet. Are they an effective way for students to learn some of the science and stark realities behind the persistent heating of Earth?

I invited half a dozen climate activists and educators to try the games out to answer these questions and more. My thought was that if people learn best while they are active and joyful participants, then turning a serious topic like climate change into a board game might have value beyond the game.

No individual winners

Most board games - think of Monopoly or Catan - are zero-sum competitions: One player wins a clear victory over the others. But since climate change affects the whole world, climate change board games emphasize teamwork and group success. Either all players win together, or no one survives. These board games have a narrative arc that can spark discussion about values, perspective, conflict, emotions and decision-making.

And those are precisely the kinds of discussions my colleagues and I had while sharing pizza and salad over the course of the evening. Together, we evaluated the games for their ease to learn, their value for teaching about climate catastrophe, their ability to spark conversation and their suitability for high school and university students.

What follows is an account of the five climate change board games that we all tried.

1. Solutions

Solutions draws upon scientific solutions researched by Project Drawdown, which is a nonprofit that pushes for solutions to climate change. The game, played in rounds, requires players to draw two cards that each carefully describe a way to reduce global emissions.

Players discuss the two options and rank which one is better for the climate. Correct decisions reduce global temperatures, while incorrect guesses damage the planet. Players also roll the dice to determine further actions that could potentially make global temperatures rise.

We all agreed the game could be a valuable learning tool since it was easy to learn and based on accurate scientific information. The need to evaluate different solutions easily sparked conversation, and the information was suitable for upper-level high school students and university students.

2. Kyoto

Another game that we ranked highly is Kyoto, which has players simulate a high-stakes climate negotiation summit. We each represented a country, and the cards we drew determined our secret national interests. To win the game, we had to bargain with each other, pay fees, bribe and try to persuade each other to reach climate goals.

Initially, I doubted the educational value of the game because, due to the draw of the cards, players who represented the U.S. could only win the game if they increased global carbon emissions, as determined by the coal-industry-friendly cards. Who wants a game where players try to raise global temperatures?

But through discussion, we all realized that the game provides insight into possible barriers to achieving emissions goals, and how nations have to juggle meeting emission-reduction goals with their own economic self-interests. While the game takes more time to learn than Solutions, we decided it could still be very useful for students.

3. Carbon City Zero

We tried playing a free downloadable and printable version of Carbon City Zero, but it proved too time-consuming to learn the rules. After 45 minutes of struggling with the cards to figure out how to play, we gave up and moved on.

4. Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising

Family Pastimes, the company that makes Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising, is known for developing only collaborative games, and we have purchased many children's games from them in the past. In Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising, players take on the role of consultants who have to make collective decisions about developing land projects in the face of sea-level rise.

We liked the discussion it sparked, but ultimately concurred that the game specifically focuses on devastating sea-level rise, rather than systemic climate change that causes such rising levels in the first place. The game is easy to learn and relies on conversation, but we felt it had a lower educational value because it does not teach about the human activity that creates and perpetuates increasing global temperatures. The game might be more suitable as an extra credit activity, rather than the focus of a classroom lesson.

5. Nunami

Finally, we played Nunami, a lovely game created by an Inuit family from Ivujivik, Canada, with instructions in Inuktitut, English and French.

The game aims to teach players about balancing life in fragile terrain. There are cards for humans, animals, sand and snow. Although we deeply appreciated how the game strives to sensitize players to Inuit life on the tundra so that they can see what is threatened by climate catastrophe, it does not teach about the drivers of climate change and thus was not suitable for our specific classroom needs.

Picking the best

By 10 p.m., we had conquered the pizza, energetically played five different board or card games, and had a lot of fun discussing critical issues and meeting new people.

To our group, the clear "winner" is the board game Solutions because it encourages collaborating to make decisions with fact-based science. The setup of the game allows for interesting team-building conversations.

As I incorporate games into my courses on climate-change literature and first-year writing, students play Solutions and complete a writing assignment based on their various decisions during the game.

At our next climate change board game evening, my group of educators and activists plans to play Tipping Point, Daybreak, Carboniq and Climate Call.

Anyone want to join us? We'll deal you in.


Debra J. Rosenthal wrote this article in a collaborative reporting initiative with The Conversation, supported by the Joyce Foundation..


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Researchers have found the amount of land affected by saltwater intrusion on the Delmarva Peninsula has dramatically increased in recent years.

Scientists from the University of Maryland, the University of Delaware and George Washington University used aerial and satellite imagery, and found between 2011 and 2017 visible salt patches almost doubled, and more than 20,000 acres of farmland had been converted to marsh. Researchers estimate the associated economic loss is between $39 million and $100 million.

Becky Epanchin-Niell, associate professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland and the study's co-author, said farmers are responding to saltwater intrusion in different ways.

"Some farmers are continuing to crop and are going to just keep trying to farm for as long as they can. Others have tried switching to different crops," Epanchin-Niell outlined. "Certain crops are much more susceptible to the salinization and the inundation than others. Others have abandoned the cropland and others have actually engaged in different conservation programs."

The paper was published over the summer in the journal Nature Sustainability. Epanchin-Niell noted researchers are now using the study results to attempt to predict areas where saltwater intrusion will next occur.

While sea level rise hits low-lying coastal areas first, there are also impacts to groundwater as well as farmlands connected to the coast via drainage ditches. Epanchin-Niell pointed out the more northern portions of the Chesapeake Bay have lower salinity given the influence of rivers draining into the bay, so different areas will see differing levels of salinity even with a constant rise in sea level.

She added to prolong productivity of coastal farmlands, researchers are studying what kinds of crops are suitable.

"We also have a lot of work done looking at how different crops respond to saltwater intrusion and looking at how farmers have and can in the future adapt to saltwater intrusion," Epanchin-Niell emphasized.

Epanchin-Niell stressed researchers are also looking at developing methods to manage the transition with an eye toward the long term.

"If you abandon the farmland, and it became encroached with lots of invasive species, that's going to have fewer benefits than for example, if there's a more planned transition, where perhaps there's restoration with different wetland species that help with the inland migration of wetlands, which are also being impacted by sea level rise," Epanchin-Niell outlined.


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