Smarter, Cleaner, Faster Infrastructure Task Force: Policy Recommendations

These policy recommendations from the Smarter, Cleaner, Faster Infrastructure Task Force will be the first in a series building off of the principles released by the Task Force, which explained why we need to build clean infrastructure at a pace that is much quicker than we have historically built. The faster we can build, the better the outcomes for our climate, for jobs, and for economic growth. This set of recommendations focuses on two policy areas crucial to accelerating the deployment of clean infrastructure. Part 1 outlines general “good government” policy recommendations for improving agency processes for reviewing and approving …

How Infrastructure Reform Can Prioritize Ocean Climate Action

Now is the time to invest in the United States’ coastal communities and ocean. Historically, the ocean has been central to the U.S. conception of infrastructure; early cities were built in naturally sheltered bays or on the banks of tidal rivers to provide safe harbors for ships. Today, ocean-based climate solutions have the potential to provide up to one-fifth of the reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions needed globally to limit the world’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which scientists say is necessary in order to lower the risks associated with climate change.

This report proposes agency-by-agency infrastructure and …

Power Infrastructure Needs for Economywide Decarbonization

The power sector must play a central role in the decarbonization of the U.S. economy. Other sectors such as buildings, industry, and transportation will be electrifying to reduce their emissions, which means the power sector over the next few decades not only has to be 100 percent non-emitting, but also much larger. It will need to accommodate massive deployments of variable renewable energy resources such as solar and wind, as well as burgeoning numbers of electric vehicles, distributed energy resources, and energy storage technologies. This will require a significant buildout of power system infrastructure, including additional generation, distribution, and transmission …

Transforming America’s Energy Infrastructure: Lessons from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Supporting and expanding the nation’s infrastructure is of the utmost importance. Investments in roads and bridges, water systems, broadband, and transmission and distribution lines help improve well-being and personal lifestyles. Such investments also generate new jobs and economic growth, and can lead to long-term reductions in climate emissions if designed well. These objectives are the impetus for current infrastructure planning in Congress and the several trillion-dollar American Jobs Plan released by the Biden administration.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “Recovery Act”), adopted a month into President Obama’s first term and during the worst economic recession in …

Clean Jumpstart 2021: A Roadmap for Realizing President Biden’s $2 Trillion Clean Energy & Infrastructure Investment Vision

President Biden and Vice President Harris campaigned and won on a bold Build Back Better plan that called for a $2 trillion investment in “modern, sustainable infrastructure and an equitable clean energy economy.” Clean Jumpstart 2021 is a manual for how Congress can realize President Biden’s vision.

The report details $2.3 trillion in investments—in 39 different action steps— that will deliver on climate, jobs, and justice. Federal lawmakers should seize this opportunity. 

In order to build a just and sustainable clean energy economy, the investments in Clean Jumpstart 2021 must be made equitably, in line with President Biden’s commitment to …

Towards Equitable and Transformative Investments in Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

This report provides a summary of the EV charging investments included in recent congressional bills on climate, clean energy, and transportation, and outlines ways federal investments could be designed to be more equitable and transformative. Georgetown Climate Center and M.J. Bradley & Associates provide lessons and examples from previous federal programs, and describe examples of state and local transportation, clean energy, and climate policies that federal policymakers can learn from and build upon.…

International Good Practice Principles for Sustainable Infrastructure

The International Good Practice Principles for Sustainable Infrastructure set out ten guiding principles that policymakers can follow to help integrate sustainability into infrastructure planning and delivery. They are focused on integrated approaches and systems-level interventions that governments can make to create an enabling environment for sustainable infrastructure.

The principles are complemented by a second publication, Integrated Approaches in Action: A Companion to the International Good Practice Principles for Sustainable Infrastructure.

Together, the publications aim to inform the forthcoming wave of global infrastructure investment. Collectively, they specify and demonstrate how environmental, social and economic sustainability must be integrated right across …

Low-Carbon Fuels: How to Use U.S. Infrastructure and Exports to Deliver Cleaner Energy to the World

The world is demanding cleaner fuels. The U.S. is uniquely positioned to take the lead in providing them. Author Steven R. Miles explains.

As the incoming U.S. administration leads the United States back into the Paris Climate Accord, there can be little doubt that countries and their citizens around the world are demanding cleaner fuels, both for electric power generation and transportation. But the share of electric energy being produced by wind and solar is a small fraction of power consumption, and an even smaller percentage of energy used for transportation. Both the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the International …

Energy Infrastructure Needs for a Net-Zero Economy

To develop these results, Decarb America commissioned Evolved Energy Research and Industrial Economics, Inc. to undertake a rigorous, multi-part modeling analysis (more information is available at About the Initiative). The analysis explores five main research topics: 1) Pathways to Net-Zero Emissions; 2) Energy Infrastructure Needs for a Net-Zero Economy; 3) Power Sector Deep Dive; 4) Clean Energy Innovation Breakthroughs; and 5) Impacts on Jobs and the Economy.

This report presents key takeaways on topics (1) and (2) from our modeling results to date, with a focus on infrastructure needs for a net-zero economy. These modeling results address four critical questions:…

Planning for the Future FERC’s Opportunity to spur more Cost-Effective Transmission Infrastructure

Over the last 25 years, four major FERC orders, No. 888, 2000, 890 and 1000, each made incremental progress building regional transmission infrastructure, moving the industry away from its past balkanized structure with relatively weak connections between utility systems towards a more reliable and efficient system allowing for more regional exchange of power. As we look to the future, much more regional and inter-regional power exchange will be needed for national energy security, reliability, resilience, cost-effectiveness, and economic competitiveness. A decade after FERC Order No. 1000’s issuance, the nation faces new challenges and it is clear that neither the current …