Gabriel Lade, an associate professor and C. William Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy at Ohio State University, will give the talk, "Does Renewable Diesel Clean the Air? Evidence from California Highways," at noon on Wednesday, April 15, in 157 Hosler Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The event is part of a spring seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI). The talk is free and open to the public.
"Renewable diesel is a hydro-processed, drop-in replacement for petroleum diesel," Lade said. "In 2011, it accounted for less than 1% of California's diesel pool but in 2024, it increased to more than two-thirds of the pool, largely driven by the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard and federal renewable fuel incentives."
Lade's research used hourly traffic flow data and roadside air quality data alongside satellite nitrogen dioxide measurements from 2016 through 2024 to estimate whether this transformation produced detectable changes in the concentration of nitrogen oxides, commonly referred to as NOx that are primarily produced by high-temperature combustion of fossil fuels, along California's highway corridors.
In his talk, Lade will discuss his findings on NOx levels.
"Exploiting variation in truck traffic during high-trucking hours on major freight corridors interacted with the statewide rise in renewable diesel's market share, we find evidence that NOx pollution decreased as renewable diesel adoption increased," Lade said. "The effects appear concentrated in the period of highest adoption and are consistent with nonlinear impacts of large-scale fuel composition change. The findings speak to when fuel-content policies produce local air quality co-benefits and how these benefits relate to the parallel role of vehicle emissions standards."
Lade's areas of expertise include the economics of biofuels regulations, water and air quality valuation, and land use regulations. Prior to joining Ohio State, Lade served as an associate professor of economics at Macalester College and held faculty positions at Iowa State University, with visiting appointments at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota. He earned his doctorate in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis.
About EEEPI
Established in 2011, EEEPI operates as a University-wide initiative at Penn State with support from the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Institute of Energy and the Environment. EEEPI seeks to catalyze research in energy and environmental systems economics across the University and to build a world-class group of economists with interests in interdisciplinary collaboration.
