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.
Resource Library
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This study focuses on the pipeline infrastructure requirements for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in connection with compliance with mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The major conclusion of the study is that while CCS technologies are relatively well defined, there remain technological challenges in the carbon capture and sequestration phases, and less so in transportation. Carbon capture is the most significant cost in the CCS process.
The study forecasts that the amount of pipeline that will be needed to transport CO2 will be between 15,000 miles and 66,000 miles by 2030, depending on how much CO2 must be sequestered and …
View Full ResourceThe case for action to reduce our energy consumption and diversify our energy sources is more compelling than ever. Military forces will always be dependent on energy, but we must dramatically reduce the risk to national security associated with our current energy posture. Energy prices fluctuate tremendously and the cost of crude oil crested near $150 per barrel in 2008. Major oil reserves are in countries or regions with governments or regimes that are at times unfriendly to U.S. and other Western interests. Our fragile energy infrastructure, such as the national electrical grid and the country’s crude oil refining capacity, …
View Full ResourceGlobally, government agencies are one of the largest procurers of steel and cement, primarily for large-scale construction projects. Similarly, in India, public procurement accounts for at least 20% of gross domestic product (GDP). To leverage this significant market size and promote synergies between sustainability and procurement, India has already implemented measures such as the Ecomark Scheme and the Standards and Labelling Scheme. Most of these existing initiatives have a limited scope, focusing on white goods like large home appliances. Green public procurement (GPP) has the potential to align producer and consumer expectations for more low-carbon materials, particularly cement and steel, …
View Full ResourceDeploying the advanced grid solutions available today could cost effectively increase the capacity of the existing grid to support 20-100 GW of incremental peak demand when installed individually, while improving grid reliability, resilience, and affordability. The grid is becoming a bottleneck to greater economic development, decarbonization, and equity priorities. Customers are demanding more grid capacity as regional electricity demand grows substantially for the first time in decades to serve a rapid uptick in data center and manufacturing needs and broader end-use electrification.
At the same time, heightened threats and increased dependence on electricity increase the importance of reliability and resilience …
Electricity demand is spiking due to data centers, a manufacturing boom, and electrification. This is good news – federal policies like the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS Act are working as intended to drive sustained economic growth through a clean energy economy. New Energy Innovation research finds we don’t need to fill the gap with more natural gas. Regulators and utilities can meet the need for more electricity, continue cleaning the grid, and maintain reliability by taking a holistic approach instead of just building more fossil generation or extending the life of fossil plants slated for retirement.…
View Full ResourceDirect air capture has gained traction as a method for carbon dioxide removal. How and whether direct air capture can be deployed requires securing social license to operate, and increasingly demands environmental justice and just transition principles. Here we use a nationally representative survey to evaluate public perceptions of direct air capture, paired with focus groups to assess community perceptions across four communities in the United States: Houston, Texas; Monaca, Pennsylvania; Bakersfield, California; and Rock Springs, Wyoming. We find conditional support for direct air capture deployment among focus group participants, and majority support for direct air capture deployment among national …
View Full ResourceThe U.S. electric grid is under strain, with blackouts on the rise and the system’s reliability more frequently tested than ever before in the face of more frequent storms, heat waves, hurricanes, and the like. In diagnosing the causes of diminishing grid reliability, policymakers and experts have pointed to aging grid infrastructure, growing cyber threats, more natural disasters and weather extremes, and overreliance on renewable energy—such as solar and wind.
This white paper argues that the primary cause of our unreliable grid is not the changing energy mix but rather a failure of grid governance. The grid governance system consists …
Hydropower plays a key role in the United States energy generation mix, representing nearly a third of U.S. renewable energy generation today. Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) currently represents 96% of utility-scale energy storage capacity and 70% of grid storage capacity and supports grid stability and reliability across the country. Despite the potential of these technologies to support the U.S. clean energy transition, new public and private investment in hydropower projects of all sizes lags other renewable energy generation sources such as wind and solar). Between 2005 and 2022, the United States substantially increased its solar and wind generation capacity, adding …
View Full ResourceWildfires ignited by power system infrastructure tend to cause more damage than other ignition sources because they occur during high wind events when fire spreads rapidly. Utilities are exploring a range of approaches to mitigate these wildfire risks. This study evaluates the cost, reliability, and wildfire risk implications of measures recently deployed by the largest utility in the United States – Pacific Gas and Electric.
Using detailed data on weather, vegetation, and infrastructure conditions from over twenty-five thousand miles of high-risk distribution lines, they use a prediction model trained on pre-intervention outcomes to estimate highly granular measures of baseline ignition …
The recently enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) together represent historic investments in the future of our nation that will transform how we move and live while we build the backbone of a safer and more sustainable transportation system.
This Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization follows the momentum from those investments to crystallize a first-of-its-kind strategy for federal leadership and partnerships to decarbonize the entire U.S. transportation sector.
Decarbonizing transportation will affect everyone, and solutions must address the needs of all urban, suburban, and rural communities; businesses of all sizes; and individuals and families at every socioeconomic …