The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
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Natural gas and electric utilities across the United States are increasingly pursuing pilot projects to blend hydrogen with natural gas for various end-uses, including as a heating fuel in buildings or for power generation. However research shows these projects would increase consumer costs, exacerbate air pollution, and cause safety risks while minimally reducing greenhouse gases. By comparison, electrification is a proven, low-cost alternative that poses no safety or health risks and can rapidly cut building emissions. And in the power sector, increasing renewable electricity is a much more efficient clean energy pathway. State utility regulators and policymakers should require a …
View Full ResourceThis report is a systematic review of the literature to understand the key opportunities and challenges associated with bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), a broad set of systems that integrate the use of energy derived from biomass with the capture and long-term storage of carbon. BECCS has received much attention due to its potential to remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere; however, there are uncertainties regarding BECCS pathways that may have adverse economic, social, and environmental impacts. While BECCS can potentially decarbonize numerous sectors, including agriculture, forestry, electricity, waste, and industry, BECCS deployment in practice has been …
View Full ResourceNYU researchers released the first study to rigorously assess the predicted impacts of Local Law 97 of 2019 (LL97), the City of New York’s signature climate law. The law caps the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that large buildings can release, starting in 2024.
The study assessed the impact that adding an emissions trading program would have on environmental justice communities and proposes ways to increase investment and emissions reductions in those areas. The study offers two options for trading programs designed to improve outcomes under LL97. Both options would benefit the City as a whole, and environmental justice communities …
View Full ResourceThere are two municipal solid waste incinerators still operating in California: the Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF) in Long Beach and the Covanta Stanislaus incinerator in Stanislaus County. The problems with these incinerators in California are emblematic of the larger problems with incinerators across the country. To start, these incinerators pollute the environment and harm public health by converting waste into harmful air emissions and toxic ash. Financially-strapped local governments and residents have also been forced to pay millions of dollars to subsidize the expensive maintenance and operations of these aging incinerators. Further, SERRF and Covanta Stanislaus emit a large …
View Full ResourceThere are more than 10,000 closed and inactive landfills around the country. These sites offer an incredible opportunity for solar development. By installing solar on closed landfills, states and municipalities advance local solar energy while repurposing relatively large, vacant sites within communities that have limited reuse potential.
Solar and landfills are a natural combination for many communities looking to accelerate local renewable energy development. Landfills typically have good sun exposure and limited other redevelopment opportunities, making solar one of the few ways to put the land to productive use. Moreover, reinvesting in closed landfill sites can help revitalize the local, …
View Full ResourceIn the United States today, 26 million low-income households burn costly, health-damaging, and climate-disrupting fossil fuels inside their homes. Communities of color are disproportionately overburdened by pollution from burning fossil fuels, as well as energy costs and poor housing quality. This is due in part to structural racism throughout our housing and economic systems. Many of these communities are also highly vulnerable to the extreme weather events brought on by climate change. They lack comparable access to cooling and resilient infrastructure, as well as the financial means to relocate.
In order to meet the country’s climate goals and protect public …
View Full ResourceTraditionally in planning power sector investments, utilities have been focused on two metrics for success: reliability and affordability. These metrics remain important, but they do not effectively account for the climate, environmental, and human impacts of fossil fuels, which disproportionately affect marginalized communities. To address climate and equity challenges, utilities will have to transform the way they plan – ensuring that a full range of resources are considered to meet utility customers’ needs. This should include both supply- and demand-side options, as well as distributed energy resources.
One of the most important opportunities to advocate for such outcomes is via …
View Full ResourceFrom January–July 2021, The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions (NI) and the Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) conducted a series of conversations with state leaders and have identified several specific policy priority areas relevant to infrastructure proposals. These policy areas and approaches have been repeatedly highlighted by state leaders contacted by NI and CNEE. This report highlights either emerging areas for states or cross-cutting needs that were consistently cited by states as important. This is not a list of state priorities for programmatic funding—such as how much funding should go to specific public investments—but areas that states …
View Full ResourceGreen hydrogen has generated a lot of interest as a zero-carbon or low-carbon fuel. Its ability to be injected into existing natural gas infrastructure has led to several large oil and gas companies promoting its use to preserve their existing pipeline assets while lowering emissions. However, despite all the hype surrounding green hydrogen, Clean Energy Group has found that there are several reasons to be concerned about its use, particularly in power plants. While hydrogen might have a valid role to play in deep decarbonization of the heavy transport or industrial sectors, runaway plans to use it extensively in the …
View Full ResourceFrom 2005 to 2018, the United States reduced its carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector by 12 percent, but the national average masks wide variation in performance across states. Declines in emissions were dramatic in some states; in others, emissions changed little or even grew. What explains this variation? What might policymakers learn from the states reducing emissions?
To answer these questions, the CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program investigated state policies that aim to reduce emissions or boost low-carbon energy. This report focuses on 16 U.S. states that are representative of the country.
The first section of …
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