Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System

The world is transforming its energy system from one dominated by fossil fuel combustion to one with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary anthropogenic greenhouse gas. This energy transition is critical to mitigating climate change, protecting human health, and revitalizing the U.S. economy. To help policymakers, businesses, communities, and the public better understand what a net-zero transition would mean for the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a committee of experts to investigate how the U.S. could best decarbonize its transportation, electricity, buildings, and industrial sectors.

This report, Accelerating Decarbonization of the United …

Examining Federal Economic Development Support for Coal Communities: Athens, Ohio Region

The federal government has a variety of policy tools available to support communities affected by the transition away from coal. This case study examines whether, and to what extent, federal economic development assistance has supported the region in and around Athens County, Ohio. This Appalachian region has a long-standing reliance on coal as an economic driver; however, recent decades have seen a large decline in regional coal mining, and several large coal-fired power plants have retired in the last several years. To assess the effectiveness of federal interventions, we reviewed data on recent discretionary grants and conducted 14 semi-structured interviews …

The Four Phases of Storage Deployment: A Framework for the Expanding Role of Storage in the U.S. Power System

This report, the first in the Storage Futures Study (SFS) series, explores the roles and opportunities for new, cost-competitive stationary energy storage with a conceptual framework based on four phases of
current and potential future storage deployment, and presents a value proposition for energy storage that could result in substantial new cost-effective deployments. This conceptual framework provides a broader context for consideration of the later reports in the series, including the detailed results of the modeling and analysis of power system evolution scenarios and their operational implications.…

Climate-Forward: How Green Investment Can Stimulate Our Economy Today and Sustain Long-Term Growth

Too often, lawmakers trap themselves in a false binary of fighting climate change or supporting economic growth.

But as A Green Recovery: The Case for Climate-Forward Stimulus Policies in America’s COVID-19 Recession Response explains, economic policies and climate policies are inextricably linked.All stimulus funds, even those not explicitly related to climate or emissions (known as “climate-blind”), have the potential to impact the climate, just as climate policies have the potential to undermine or amplify the efficacy of government stimulus.

A “green” stimulus that invests in renewable energy and other affirmative decarbonization efforts would provide:

Immediate relief, immediate payoff Growth that

Administrative Costs of a Carbon Tax

This paper analyzes the administrative burden of a U.S. carbon tax by offering a conceptual analysis of the complexity of taxation in general, comparing that complexity across common types of taxes, and drawing insights from the administrative burden of traditional excise taxes and a value-added tax.…

Abundance of Natural Gas Helps Indiana Maintain its Competitive Edge

Hoosier families, small businesses, farmers and manufacturers saved more than $12 billion from 2009 to 2019, thanks to affordable and reliable natural gas, made possible by increased energy production and safe, responsible infrastructure to deliver it, according to a new report released by Consumer Energy Alliance. Households saved close to $4.6 billion while commercial and industrial users saved more than $8.1 billion combined, according to the report entitled “Abundance of Natural Gas Helps Indiana Maintain its Competitive Edge”.

The report underscores how expanded, environmentally responsible energy infrastructure modernization and natural gas have created billions in energy savings and …

Race to Zero Breakthroughs

The “Race to Zero Breakthroughs” have been published in a special paper, which sets out near-term goals for more than 20 sectors that make up the global economy, forming a master plan around which business, governments, and civil society can unite ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference,  COP26, in Glasgow in November.…

Clean Transportation: An Economic Assessment of More Inclusive Vehicle Electrification in California

To help elucidate some of the potential impacts and benefits of broader PEV adoption, Clean Transportation: An Economic Assessment of More Inclusive Vehicle Electrification in California, prepared by Berkeley Economic Advising and Research, assesses the economic implications of the projected increase in electric vehicle use with a long-term economic forecasting model. Californians spend about $60 billion on gasoline each year—most of which goes to out-of-state or out-of-country companies. By transitioning to more electric vehicles powered by clean energy, consumers save money and spend those savings in the economy, multiplying the benefit economy-wide to provide a significant boost to service industry …

Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: Quiet Climate Policy in a Post-COVID World

The policy recommendations in this report are the summation of the Breakthrough Institute’s COVID-19 recovery and stimulus proposals released over the course of 2020. In late December 2020, Congress passed, and President Trump signed, the $1.4 trillion fiscal 2021 appropriations bill — which earmarked substantial funding for clean energy R&D, advancing many of the goals, if not always the specifics, of Breakthrough’s recommendations. This bill’s passage during a moment of historic partisan conflict is a potent signal of the virtue of quiet climate policy — its potential to simultaneously reduce the political polarization of climate change and advance the most …

Fiscal Policy Is Climate Policy: How Curbing Corporate Power Can Address the Climate Crisis

The federal government has invested more than $3 trillion in stimulus measures to mitigate the COVID-19 emergency. But while the initial rounds of relief were instrumental in staving off the most disastrous effects of the pandemic, they failed to meaningfully constrain the power of large corporations, many of which fuel the climate crisis.

As argued in A Green Recovery: The Case for Climate-Forward Stimulus Policies in America’s COVID-19 Recession Response, all fiscal policy is climate policy. Even legislation that does not explicitly address climate change has the potential to dramatically impact emission levels, environmental health, and the structure of …