Southeast Clean Air Data Intern

National Parks Conservation Association • Atlanta, GA

1d • Remote

About The Position

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a national nonprofit advocate, is seeking a Southeast Clean Air Data Intern. This intern will collaborate with NPCA’s Southeast Regional Director and Senior Air and Climate Manager on critical data and research projects focused on protecting air quality in national parks, specifically concerning the Regional Haze Rule. The role involves updating data sets and related materials to inform NPCA's strategic direction. The intern will gain knowledge of the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) datasets, understand air pollution sources and their emission levels, and how they impact national parks. The intern will learn about how industrial sectors like oil and gas and electricity generation affect national parks. A key focus will be on regions like the Southeast experiencing increased air pollution due to old coal plants being kept online to meet growing energy demands from AI and data centers. The intern will assist in analyzing this data and producing materials for NPCA's air quality protection campaigns.

Requirements

• Data processing in Microsoft Excel, R, or Python
• ArcGIS Desktop/Pro and ArcGIS Online
• Writing skills

Nice To Haves

• Graduate student (within one year of graduation) with STEM Discipline

Responsibilities

• Development and organization of a nationwide air pollution emissions dataset for point sources using the most recent National Emissions Inventory (NEI 2023).
• Creation of easily accessible query systems to allow access to specific emissions data as needed.
• Formatting the data for the calculation of the impact of each pollution source on national parks and wilderness areas using the Q/d metric.
• Updates to the NPCA’s interactive map with new Q/d data.
• Analysis of the growth of energy demand and corresponding air pollution increases from park-harming sources in various regions of the U.S., including the Southeast.
• Preparation of an analysis for NPCA’s Southeast region, including: Maps, Identification of industrial sources impacting Class I areas in the Southeast region, Rankings of the worst polluting sources and the most impacted Class I areas in the Southeast region.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees