Improving Accountability, Efficiency in Nuclear Energy Regulation

The nuclear energy industry and the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission hold safety of the public, plant employees and the environment as their top priority. The NRC’s mission includes establishing and enforcing regulations for the safe operation of nuclear energy facilities. Over the years, the amount of regulatory activity and industry-driven requirements has increased, requiring nuclear power plant operators to devote more resources to compliance efforts, some of which do little to enhance safety.…

Multifamily Energy Efficiency: Reported Barriers and Emerging Practices

This report identifies commonly-cited barriers to energy efficiency investments in low-income multifamily housing and discusses current efforts to address them. It highlights strategies for deploying public- and private-sector resources, with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of current and future efforts.

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Platform on Industrial Energy Efficiency

The U.S. manufacturing sector forms a cornerstone of our nation’s economy, providing nearly 12 million good-paying jobs for middle-class families across the country in 20111 and $1.8 trillion in gross domestic product.2 The sector remains the world’s largest, manufacturing 18.2 percent of global manufactured products,3 with China’s rapidly growing manufacturing sector accounting for 17.6 percent.4

The economic downturn took a significant toll on American manufacturers and the crisis facing American firms and workers extends well beyond the recent recession. Weathering the storm requires support for the efficient use of energy resources in American manufacturing.…

California Energy Efficiency: Lessons for the Rest of the World, or Not?

Since the 1970s California’s residential electricity consumption per capita has stopped increasing, while other states’ electricity use continued to grow steadily. Similar patterns can be seen in non-electric energy, industry, and transportation. What accounts for California’s apparent energy savings? Some credit the strict energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances enacted by California in the mid-1970s.

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Unlocking American Efficiency: The Economic and Commercial Power of Investing in Energy Efficient Buildings

Americans spend $432 billion a year powering their homes, stores and offices, on par  with what US businesses spend on employee health insurance. United Technologies  Corporation, in collaboration with the Rhodium Group, analyzed the impact of a 30%  improvement in US building efficiency by 2030. We find that such an improvement is  possible with existing technology and design practices and would generate $65  billion dollars per year in savings, net of investment costs, for American households,  businesses and governments.

In corporate finance terms, investing in a 30% improvement in building energy  efficiency would have an internal rate of return (IRR) …

Energy-Efficiency Policies in the Asia-Pacific: Can We Do Better?

American Energy Productivity: The Economic, Environmental and Security Benefits of Unlocking Energy Efficiency

Energy is essential to American economic success. Like capital, labor and land, energy is an economic input, or “factor of production,” that determines the speed and quality of economic growth.  Countries grow either through more economic input or by using that input more efficiently. For example, when the size of a country’s workforce grows, so does its economic potential. But it’s not actually the number of workers that matter from an economic standpoint so much as the amount of work they are able to perform collectively. So improvements in education and technology that make workers more productive grow the economy …

California’s Energy Future: Building and Industrial Efficiency

The Networked Energy Web: The Convergence of Energy Efficiency, Smart Grid, and Distributed Power Generation as the Next Frontier of the ICT Revolution

In a new Center for American Progress report released today called “The Networked Energy Web,” we argue that this upheaval in the energy sector can best be understood as the next wave of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution. Just as previous waves of technological change in wireless communications or digital data management brought with them fundamentally different engineering approaches, new business models, and ultimately dramatically changed industry structures, so too a new wave of growth, restructuring, and reinvestment are coming as our 19th century energy infrastructure collides with 21st century information management tools. In this paper we offer …

Transport Intensity and Energy Efficiency: Analysis of Policy Implications of Coupling and Decoupling

Economic growth based on use of non renewable energy constitutes a serious problem  because of, especially, negative environmental externalities. Growth of energy consumption  and gas emissions are the principal negative impacts of these modes of development.  However, the sustainable development requires modes of development which demand few  of energy and produce few of pollutant gas. Literature has interested of this problematic in  an aggregate or disaggregate contexts. The first is concerning the relationship between  economic growth, domestic energy consumption and gas emissions. The second is  corresponding to the same relationship but per economic sector. Industry and transport  sectors are more …