Don Anair
Clean Vehicles Engineer
Expertise:

• Heavy duty vehicle emission control technologies
• Diesel emissions and public health
• California air quality regulation and incentive programs

Don analyzes the impact of diesel pollution on public health and air quality. He is also an advocate for groundbreaking cleanup efforts in the state and around the country, including regulations, incentive programs, and legislation. Don is the author of UCS reports "Sick of Soot: Reducing the Health Impacts of Diesel Pollution in California," and "Digging up Trouble: The Health Risks of Construction Pollution in California."

Don holds B.S. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering from Cornell University. As a member of Cornell's Formula Society of Automotive Engineers vehicle team, he designed and manufactured a methanol-based alternative fuel system for use in a high-performance race car.

Christopher Busch
Climate Economist
Expertise:

• Global warming solutions
• Economics and econometrics
• Cap-and-trade policy design
• Energy, transportation, land use and forestry policy

Chris Busch is an economist in the UCS' California Climate Program and has worked on global warming solutions for over a decade.  His current work focuses on implementation of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act. California continues to develop its blueprint for meeting AB 32's ambitious yet achievable global warming pollution reduction goal for the year 2020.  Working in cooperation with leading researchers, Chris endeavors to contribute answers to the challenging analytical questions that the state faces in developing this blueprint.  The question of the best role for market mechanisms, in particular a cap-and-trade program, within the larger portfolio of policies that will be implemented remains a topic of intense debate in California.  

Chris co-authored the report Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in California in 2006, while with U.C. Berkeley's California Climate Change Center.  The report identifies the key policy and technological challenges and opportunities that global warming presents.  Chris holds a Ph.D. in environmental economics from Berkeley's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and a master's degree in public policy from Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.  Before starting his doctoral work, Chris served as a senior research associate in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's International Energy Studies Group.  He also worked as a graduate student research associate in the Lab's Appliance and Lighting Standards Group. 

Jennifer Boynton
Administrative Coordinator

Jen manages the California office and represents the Finance, HR and IT staff in the West Coast office. She also coordinates carbon mitigation strategies for UCS operations and manages accounting of UCS carbon emissions through the California Climate Action Registry. She is currently pursuing an MBA in Sustainable Management through the Presidio School of Management.

Prior to UCS, Jen worked for the British Government promoting UK science policies and research opportunities, including those related to Climate Change. She has a BA in Sociology from Pitzer College, a member of the Claremont Colleges.  

Cliff Chen
Clean Energy Analyst
Expertise:

• California Renewable Electricity Standard
• Renewable energy economics and policy
• Climate change mitigation in electricity sector
• Greenhouse gas performance standard

Cliff provides technical and policy analysis to advance effective renewable energy and climate change policies at regulatory and legislative agencies in California.  Cliff actively contributes to UCS's ongoing participation in California regulatory proceedings to ensure successful implementation of the state's renewables electricity standard and to advocate effective electricity sector climate change policies in accordance with the state's landmark global warming bill.   

Prior to coming to UCS, Cliff was a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where his research focused on the economic and environmental implications of renewable energy incentive policies.  Cliff was also a consultant at Synapse Energy Economics, where he modeled the impacts of various clean energy policies for the U.S. EPA, state regulatory commissions, and environmental organizations.   He has written numerous reports on clean energy policies, including several economic analyses of state renewables electricity standards.

Cliff has a masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley in energy and resources, and a bachelors degree from Stanford University in earth systems with an emphasis on energy science and technology. 

Daniel Kalb
California Policy Coordinator
Expertise:

• State legislation on clean vehicles, renewable energy, global warming
• Air pollution in California
• AB 32 implementation
• State and local renewable energy policy
• Transportation and sprawl policy

Dan works with state legislators, agency officials, civic leaders, environmental groups, and others to craft and promote renewable energy, clean transportation, and global warming legislation in California.  He also works with stakeholders and relevant state agencies to implement strong, effective policies to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. 

Kalb has drafted legislation dealing with vehicles, fuels, and greenhouse gas emissions, and worked extensively in coalition to support passage of AB 32 and other legislation aimed at curbing global warming pollution.  A veteran at working with the media, Kalb has appeared on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and been interviewed by dozens of reporters on various local and state environmental issues in California.  Dan has been quoted in the L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News among other publications. 

Immediately prior to his tenure at UCS, Kalb worked on Bay Area regional issues for the Sierra Club.  Kalb received his baccalaureate of science degree in conservation of natural resources from the U.C. Berkeley, and a master's degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco.

Patricia Monahan
Deputy Director, Clean Vehicles Program
Director of the California Office
Expertise:

• Emissions analysis of diesel, gasoline, and alternative-fuel engines
• California and federal diesel regulations 
• Health impacts of vehicular pollution
• Strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles

Patricia is currently working on California-specific strategies to reduce global warming pollution from vehicles and transportation fuels. Patricia has published numerous studies on the benefits of reducing diesel pollution from cars, trucks, buses, and heavy equipment. She has worked on federal legislation to fund cleaner school buses, as well as California-specific regulations and legislation to reduce diesel pollution.

Before joining UCS in 2001, Patricia spent eight years as a scientist working on air pollution and toxics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC, and San Francisco. She spent several years as an energy analyst at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, where her research encompassed industrial energy use and efficiency, projections of energy use and pollution, and international strategies for reducing heat-trapping gas emissions.

Patricia has a bachelor's degree in environmental science from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in energy analysis and policy from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Blythe Robbins
Program Assistant

Blythe assists all programs working on climate change, clean energy, and clean vehicles issues in California. She also supports the administrative coordinator with office-related and finance tasks.

Prior to UCS, Blythe worked in publishing as an editor of science textbooks. She has a BA in French Literature from U.C. Berkeley.

Spencer Quong
Senior Vehicles Analyst
Expertise:

• Advanced automotive technologies
• Electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles
• Global warming emissions from the transportation sector
• California clean car discount legislation

From racing solar cars across continents to fueling hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, throughout his career Spencer has focused on the technical aspects of prototype vehicles and alternative fuels.  His emphasis at UCS is on zero emissions vehicles, alternative fuels, and greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions in California.  Spencer has written several papers on vehicle emissions and efficiency testing, hydrogen purity, and low temperature superconductors. 

Spencer graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a bachelors of science in materials science and engineering.  Prior to working at UCS, Spencer was a self-employed consultant who installed, serviced, and tested alternative fueling stations and vehicle service centers.  He also provided alternative fuels and hydrogen safety training to many major automotive companies.  Spencer has also led several hybrid and electric vehicle projects while working at AeroVironment, Inc. and Ford Motor Company.  While at Argonne National Laboratory, Spencer tested over 100 different hybrid vehicle configurations to evaluate their efficiency and emissions characteristics.  Spencer is currently a member of Team New England, a solar/electric vehicle racing team. 

Erin Rogers
California Outreach Coordinator

Erin works with UCS's 25,000 California members and activists, as well as environmental justice, health, science, religious, civic, business, community-based, and other groups to design and implement campaigns for cleaner diesel, cleaner energy, cleaner vehicles, and other global warming solutions. Erin also coordinates the California Sound Science Initiative—a network of more than 600 California scientists affiliated the UCS. 

Before coming to UCS, Erin spent ten years working on environmental issues in Texas, serving as the executive director of a bi-national organization that successfully fought a national nuclear waste dump on the Texas/Mexico border.  She also worked as the grassroots outreach coordinator and Beyond Nuclear Power project director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Erin has a Master's degree in public administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a BA from the University of Texas at Austin's Plan II Liberal Arts Honor Program.