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Max Baumhefner, Sustainable Energy Fellow, San Francisco

Max Baumhefner
I am an attorney, outdoor enthusiast, and a bread baker. My focus is the juncture of the electricity and transportation sectors. I work on policies designed to integrate electric vehicles into the grid and maximize their environmental benefits. I'm an environmentalist because my parents taught me to be responsible and clean up after myself, and I always do what my parents tell me.

Recent Posts

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Needs a Better Accountant

Posted March 12, 2013 by Max Baumhefner in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, The Media and the Environment

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A Wall Street Journal Op-Ed by Bjorn Lomborg, “Green Cars Have a Dirty Little Secret,” argues that even though driving on electricity emits half as much pollution as driving on gasoline, it never makes up for the additional energy it...continued

Good and Green Reasons to Consider an Electric Car This Year

Posted March 5, 2013 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming

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By Felix Kramer* and Max Baumhefner When it comes to consumer products, environmentalists generally don’t encourage people to buy new and buy now. But that’s what we're about to do because electric cars are significantly cleaner than gasoline vehicles, and...continued

Tesla/NY Times Factual Dispute Reveals Different Truth

Posted February 16, 2013 by Max Baumhefner in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy

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Over the past few days, a debate has unfolded between the start-up electric vehicle company, Telsa, and the New York Times on the subject of a test drive that ended with the car running out of juice. Telsa has released...continued

Big Brown and Governor Brown Deliver on Zero Emission Vehicles

Posted February 5, 2013 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy

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Governor Jerry Brown today released a “Zero Emission Vehicle Action Plan,” representing the nation’s most comprehensive effort by a state to accelerate the deployment of plug-in electric vehicles. Along with his announcement came the news that UPS took delivery of 100...continued

Why Can't Your Loan Be as Green and Efficient as Your Vehicle?

Posted January 31, 2013 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy

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If you buy a car that costs over a $1,000 less a year to fuel than most other vehicles, shouldn’t you get better financing terms for potentially having more money to put toward paying off that vehicle? Unfortunately, only one...continued

Oil Industry Says We Can't Get Off Oil, Independent Analysis Shows Otherwise

Posted December 18, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy

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If California is to reduce its pollution to a level climate science makes clear is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, it must address the transportation sector, which accounts for 40 percent of the state’s emissions.  In...continued

Your Personal Energy Independence

Posted November 29, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming

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Everyone knows that gasoline is made from oil, and how much a gallon of the stuff costs at the pump, but most people would be hard pressed to accurately explain what a kilowatt-hour is, let alone what one costs, or...continued

Real Oil Independence: Buck-a-Gallon Electricity for Life

Posted November 21, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming

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Recently, there has been a lot of talk about increased domestic oil production and American energy independence.  The two are not the same. Drilling in the U.S. will not insulate Americans from the long-term upward trend the global price of...continued

Electric Car Sales Increase 228 Percent

Posted October 31, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming

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Automakers operate on a different calendar, in which the 2012 model year recently came to a close.  As my colleague, Luke Tonachel, explains, this was the year of the green car, with record new fleet fuel efficiency, a 55 percent...continued

What if You Could Choose Your Fuel?

Posted October 10, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming

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Gas prices in California are finally starting to drop after a series of record highs, following a fire at a Chevron refinery and a power outage at an Exxon Mobil facility, hurting Californians at the pump, and leading to calls...continued

On National Plug-in Day, California Plugs into Economic Growth

Posted September 23, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy

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New research conducted by UC Berkeley economists and the California Electric Transportation Coalition shows that fueling California’s cars and trucks with electricity instead of oil would help grow the state’s economy, creating tens of thousands of new jobs.  Simply put,...continued

Electricity Still a Buck-a-Gallon For Life

Posted June 13, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming

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When you buy a car, you make a long-term commitment to purchasing the fuel required to make it go.  Which would you rather choose: electricity, a reliably cheap, domestic fuel that gets cleaner every year you own the car, or...continued

PG&E Proposes New & Improved Rates for Electric Car Customers

Posted May 9, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming

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Today, the biggest electric utility in California, the largest car market in the country, took an important step to give drivers access to a cleaner fuel that’s roughly the equivalent of buck-a-gallon gasoline.  Pacific Gas & Electric (“PG&E”) has submitted...continued

Getting Off Oil Can Be Done - The Electric Industry Already Did

Posted May 5, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy

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Imagine driving on a cleaner, domestic, oil-free fuel, at a cost that’s roughly equivalent to dollar-a-gallon gasoline.  That, in essence, is the reason why thousands will gather this week at the Los Angeles Convention Center for the International Electric Vehicle...continued

Unfounded Attacks on Electric Cars Endanger American Jobs

Posted February 9, 2012 by Max Baumhefner in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, The Media and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy

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Congressman Issa recently called a hearing to accuse the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) of a cover up related to its now closed investigation into the post-crash fire risk posed by the Chevy Volt’s lithium-ion batteries.  Issa’s theatrics only...continued

About

Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.

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