Carbon Impacts of Reinstating the U.S. Crude Export Ban

A growing body of research has shown that continued investment in fossil fuel extraction will put global climate goals out of reach. The contradiction between a climate-safe emissions trajectory and increasing fossil fuel production is most stark in the United States, which the shale boom has made the world’s leading oil and gas producer. One key factor in triggering this boom was the 2015 removal of the decades-old ban on crude oil exports. As Jim Teague, the chief executive of Enterprise Products, the U.S.’s largest crude exporter, told The Dallas Morning News in November 2019, “Without the crude oil export …

A New Approach in Oregon’s Greenhouse Gas Initiative

The Oregon Legislative Assembly is again considering the introduction of a price on carbon emissions as an element of an economy-wide initiative aimed at achieving the state’s climate goals of achieving a 45 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2035, and 80 percent by 2050. Carbon pricing would begin in 2022. An important portion of carbon revenues will be directed to investments to help the state achieve these goals. The proposal will be considered during the state’s legislative session, which this year is a short (35 day) session that begins February 3. If the proposal is …

Hydrogen’s Decarbonization Impact for Industry

When considering what a global energy system on a 1.5°C or 2°C pathway will look like by 2050, hydrogen consistently plays a critical role as a low-carbon fuel. In fact, for several industrial application areas, there are no other viable pathways to decarbonization.

Our report, Hydrogen’s Decarbonization Impact for Industry: Near-term Challenges and Long-term Potential, highlights the immediate decarbonization potential of hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels in some industrial processes.…

Launching Plug and Play Distributed Energy Resources Into the Future

Plug and Play Distributed Energy Resources Will Supercharge the Energy Ecosystem

Currently, deployments of innovative distributed energy resources (DERs) are being held back by one important thing. It is costly in time and effort to get them to work together. With interoperability for the electric grid, envision a neighborhood has solar generation directed to EV charging and storage during times of high production and low costs. When the sun sets, stored energy is used to meet the local increased load, reducing stress on the grid and maintaining comfort and convenience for the customers. This future is what the finalists of …

Offshore Wind Public Participation Guide

Offshore wind power is an exciting new frontier for American energy production, where technological advances, business opportunity, and policy are converging to unlock a reliable natural resource. Offshore wind will bring tens of thousands of highly-skilled U.S. jobs, strengthen coastal economies, and deliver vast amounts of reliable, clean energy to America’s largest population centers.

America’s first offshore wind farm came online in 2016 in Rhode Island state waters. As of January 2020, there are 15 active commercial lease areas for offshore wind development in federal waters, with more in the works. Interested parties, including members of the general public, industries, …

Climate Risk and Response: Physical Hazards and Socioeconomic Impacts

After more than 10,000 years of relative stability—the full span of human civilization—the Earth’s climate is changing. As average temperatures rise, climate science finds that acute hazards such as heat waves and floods grow in frequency and severity, and chronic hazards, such as drought and rising sea levels, intensify (Exhibit 1). In this report, we focus on understanding the nature and extent of physical risk from a changing climate over the next one to three decades, exploring physical risk as it is the basis of both transition and liability risks.…

Clean Energy Investment Trends 2019

Late surge in offshore wind financings helps 2019 renewables investment to overtake 2018.…

Insights From the California Energy Policy Simulator

California met its 2020 economy-wide goal of reducing emissions below 1990 levels in 2016, and is now working toward a 2030 goal of reducing emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels. Using the California Energy Policy Simulator, this report finds existing climate policies will reduce the state’s 2030 emissions by more than 100 million metric tons, but leave emissions about 25 million metric tons above the 2030 target. The report also identifies six preferred policies that together reach California’s 2030 target, generate $7 billion in direct economic benefits, and yield an estimated $14 billion in health and climate impacts.…

How Will Natural Gas Fare in the Energy Transition?

It is hard to know sometimes whether natural gas is in a golden age or a dark age. Gas is often presented as a promising candidate to deliver cleaner air and decarbonization, which are reasons why many outlooks see a continued need for gas to 2040 and beyond, even assuming a rapid energy transition. Others see it as a temporary and expensive solution that we, as a world, must not lock in, lest we undermine our efforts on deep decarbonization. And others still question whether gas should play any role at all in the energy transition, its environmental credentials undercut …

Emissions in the Stream: Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Impacts of an Oil and Gas Boom

The Shale Revolution has stimulated a large and rapid buildout of oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf and Southwest regions of the United States (US), expected to unfold over decades. Therefore, it is critical to develop a clearer understanding of the scale and composition of the likely greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with this activity. We compile a detailed inventory of projected upstream oil and gas production expansions as well as recently and soon-to-be built midstream and downstream facilities within the region. Using data from emissions permits, emissions factors, and facility capacities, we estimate expected GHG emissions at the …