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Studies · CA Air Quality · Investigation 04

What Happens When You Combine Everything?

Transport and building electrification tested together across 20 combined scenarios. The structural question: do the effects add up, or do cross-sector interactions change the arithmetic? The answer determines whether you can optimize each sector separately or have to solve them jointly.

1,424
Best Deaths Avoided
$4B
T2+B2 Cost
~Additive
Cross-Sector Effect
20
Scenarios Tested
Combined Results

The Top Five Portfolio Strategies

Combination Deaths Avoided Cost DAC Share
T2 + B2 (Accelerate Both) 1,424 $4.0B 20.1%
T2 + B1 (Accelerate Transport Only) 1,361 $2.0B 20.2%
T2 + B4 (Accelerate + Cooking First) 1,366 $2.5B 20.2%
T2 + B3 (Accelerate + New Only) 1,339 $2.0B 20.2%
T1 + B1 (Baseline Both) 1,001 $0 20.4%

All results at 2035 horizon. 20 scenarios = 5 transport × 4 building. 10,000 MC draws per combination. Baseline deaths: 14,699/yr.

Additivity Test

The Effects Simply Add Up

The structural question for combined policy analysis: do transport and building electrification interact, or are they independent? If they interact, optimizing each one separately gives the wrong answer for the joint problem.

T2 Alone (2035)
1,313
Deaths avoided from accelerated transport electrification (Inv 02)
B2 Alone (2035)
118
Deaths avoided from accelerated building retrofit (Inv 03)
T2 + B2 Combined
1,424
Sum of individual: 1,431. Actual combined: 1,424. Difference: <1%.

The combined effect (1,424 deaths avoided) is within 1% of the sum of individual effects (1,313 + 118 = 1,431). The sectors are effectively independent in the source-receptor model. Transport emissions and building emissions come from different source categories with different spatial patterns, and the ISRM handles them linearly.

This simplifies the policy problem. CARB can optimize each sector on its own — T2 for transport, B1 for buildings — and sum the results: T2+B1 at $2B avoids 1,361 deaths.

Cost-Effectiveness

Where the Marginal Dollar Goes

T2 alone: $2B buys 1,361 deaths avoided at $1.47M each. Adding B2 for another $2B buys only 63 more — $31.7M per death, nearly 3× the EPA VSL of $11.6M. The marginal return drops ~22×. Spend on transport acceleration, not building acceleration.

Finding
Combined transport + building electrification avoids up to 1,424 deaths at $4B (T2+B2). But the effects are additive — optimizing each sector independently gives the right answer. The cost-effective portfolio is T2+B1: accelerate transport ($2B), keep current building policy ($0), for 1,361 deaths avoided. The extra $2B for building acceleration buys only 63 more lives at $31.7M each.

20 combined scenarios (5 transport × 4 building) · 10,000 Monte Carlo draws · 2035 horizon · Additivity validated: combined effect within 1% of sum of individual effects · ISRM linear source-receptor assumption confirmed empirically · EPA VSL $11.6M (2024$)