Clean Vehicles Intern
The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and a transition to zero-emission vehicles is a key strategy towards decarbonizing our roads and reducing the main cause of climate pollution. The Bekenstein Clean Vehicles Intern at NRDC, within the Transportation Division in the Climate and Energy Department, will support defending NRDC’s current key transportation policy priorities and help develop new transportation policies that accelerate the transition towards a zero-emission transportation system. The Clean Vehicles Intern will work closely with the Director and Senior Advocate on the Clean Vehicles team to conduct research and analysis on the benefits of zero-emission vehicles, including passenger cars and commercial trucks, as well as the benefits of EV tax credit incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act. The Clean Vehicles Intern will also help conduct reach and analysis, and support transportation policy plan development for state-specific policies that can support the transition towards a cleaner, zero-emission vehicle transportation system. The Clean Vehicles Intern will participate in both internal and external Coalition discussions around the transition to zero-emission vehicles and will have the opportunity to lead and author at least one memo or policy paper related to transportation, as well as assist in drafting a state-by-state transportation policy plan.
Timeline
Week 1: Onboarding and Orientation. The Clean Vehicle Intern will be given readings to get up to speed on NRDC’s policies priorities, the transportation landscape, and gain clear understanding of the project. The Intern will join internal NRDC calls to meet the Transportation Team and have individual 1:1 meetings with team members to understand their work.
Week 2: Additional readings on relevant topics. The intern will also begin to develop a more concrete plan for project completion, and will join additional internal NRDC calls.
Week 3: External Coordination. The Intern will begin to join External Coordination calls on relevant transportation related topics and continue to get an in depth understanding of the issues that are trying to be addressed. The intern will begin conducting additional research on policy opportunities and analysis on the benefits of zero-emission vehicles and tax incentives.
Week 4: Intern will continue analysis on benefits of zero-emission vehicles, and will continue to conduct research on policy opportunities in states.
Week 5: Intern will continue analysis on benefits of zero-emission vehicles, and will continue to conduct research on policy opportunities in states.
Week 6: Intern will attend in-person external meetings with Coalition partners. Intern will continue analysis on benefits of zero-emission vehicles and will continue to conduct research on policy opportunities in states.
Week 7: Intern will begin drafting state transportation policy plan for 1 state on policy opportunities related to transportation decarbonization.
Week 8: Intern will continue drafting state transportation policy plan for 1 state on policy opportunities related to transportation decarbonization. Draft is sent to manager
Week 9: Draft transportation policy plan incorporates manager feedback and is shared with other relevant NRDC members.
Week 10: Feedback on state transportation policy plan is incorporated and final memo/ policy paper on project is discussed.
Week 11: Memo/ policy paper is drafted and reviewed by manager, transportation policy plan continues to be finalized
Week 12: Memo/ policy paper on transportation research is published, final transportation policy plan is drafted, and research findings are presented to the Transportation Division and/or Climate and Energy Department
Qualifications
- Familiarity with environmental policy, ideally with clean vehicle and fuel standards and/or energy and climate change policy.
- Commitment to NRDC’s mission, values, and DEI principles
- Dependable, responsible, and hard working
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Strong technical research, analytical and quantitative skills.
- Self-starter with good person time management skills
- Collaborative – works well with others on a team
- Creative problem solver
Background
NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet’s most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically under-represented in the environmental movement.
We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Our offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, and we ask them to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues. We call this purposeful presence.
As a science-based organization, NRDC aims to do our part to help contain the COVID-19 public health crisis. For the sake of health, safety, and equity, we ask that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. We consider a person to be vaccinated two weeks after receiving one full course of a CDC-approved vaccine. In accordance with state or local law, new hires will be asked to attest to vaccination, those wishing to do so may request medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions via NRDC Employee Relations. NRDC treats all vaccine-related data confidentially, in keeping with local, state, and federal laws.
