Tracking Decarbonization in the Southeast

Our fourth-annual “Tracking Decarbonization in the Southeast” report examines power sector generation and emissions throughout the Southeast, which is home to some of the biggest utility systems in the nation including, Duke Energy, Southern Company, NextEra Energy, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Many of these Southeastern utilities have been in the national spotlight for their professed commitment to decarbonization, but there are often inconsistencies between stated goals and resource plans.

Yet, the role that electric utilities play in addressing the climate crisis has only grown more important since the electrification of vehicles, home appliances, and more relies on utility-generated …

EPA Issues Broad Updates to Renewable Fuel Standards Program: 5 Things to Know

The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has recently finalized volumes for compliance years 2020, 2021, and 2022 under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”)’s renewable fuel standard (“RFS”) program and took several other related regulatory actions. Specifically, EPA announced supplemental volume obligations for compliance years 2022 and 2023, denied 69 small refinery exemption petitions applicable to prior compliance years, and set the requirements for using “biointermediates” to produce qualifying renewable fuels.…

Offshore Wind: A Crucial Resource To Decarbonize The Western United States

The United States’ West Coast has vast, untapped offshore wind resources to help decarbonize the country’s energy system. Unfortunately, the U.S. lacks ambition on offshore wind – particularly across California, Oregon, and Washington – which have no established offshore wind deployment requirements. This research brief explains federal policies that could cost-effectively support offshore wind as a core power sector emissions reduction strategy, including tax credits, port development, transmission investments, and timely siting.…

The Energy Security Case for Tackling Gas Flaring and Methane Leaks

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has had a dramatic impact on the global energy system. Russia was the world’s largest oil and natural gas exporter in 2021, and energy markets have been thrown into turmoil, with major energy security and supply risks worldwide.

Substantial gas resources currently are being produced that do not make it to market because they are lost to flaring and leaks across the oil and gas supply chain. This report estimates that nearly 210 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas could be made available to gas markets by a global effort to eliminate non-emergency flaring …

Why Downblending HEU is Vital to Keep US Advanced Nuclear on Target

While developing domestic enrichment capacity will be essential to fueling our advanced reactor fleet, downblending highly-enriched uranium (HEU) is urgently needed to produce the initial fuel loads for our first advanced reactor units and ensure we stay on schedule for commercializing advanced nuclear power. Although the current US HEU inventory is classified, the most recent declassified accounting in 2016 reveals a substantial amount of HEU available for potential downblending, of which only a modest portion would be required to produce the first fuel cores for our leading advanced reactor demonstrations. Considering the climate, commercial, geopolitical, and national security interests …

California Energy Policy Simulator Update: Earlier Action Delivers Social and Economic Benefits

Updated California Energy Policy Simulator (EPS) research finds California must more than triple its decarbonization rate to meet state climate goals. EPS modeling identifies a proven set of climate strategies that would get California back on track, cut emissions 47 percent by 2030, add $28 billion to the state’s economy, create nearly 170,000 jobs, prevent 26,000 asthma attacks, and save households an average of $1,500 in 2030. These policies include 100 percent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2030, 100 percent electric appliances by 2030, and industrial process electrification – all powered by a 100 percent clean grid by 2035. California’s 2022 …

Risky Business: Surging U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas Exports Jeopardize Global Decarbonization Goals

Holding global temperature rise to below 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels will require the world to transition away from all fossil fuel production, including fossil gas. Fossil gas is commonly and misleadingly presented as a “transition fuel”—cleaner and with lower CO2 emissions than coal or oil—and as a potential tool to help address climate change. However, neither fossil gas nor liquefied natural gas (LNG) is clean, nor are they particularly low in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The U.S., set to become the world’s largest exporter of LNG by the end of 2022, is continuing to increase LNG production. If the …

High-temperature Gas-cooled Reactors and Industrial Heat Applications

Reducing industrial carbon emissions is one of the most difficult challenges on the path to net-zero by 2050 due to the magnitude of greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sector and technical requirements for heat in addition to power. High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) are a promising Generation IV nuclear technology that can supply process heat for a variety of industrial applications.

The Nuclear Energy Agency investigated the potential and limitations of HTGRs for industrial heat applications. This study reviews the technical features and development status of HTGRs as a low carbon heat source and explores how this technology could meet …

Wells Fargo Housing Affordability and Climate Change Dialogues: Multifamily Workshops Summary Report

New and existing financing tools must play a crucial role in addressing barriers to achieving energy efficiency and emissions reductions in the US multifamily housing sector. Yet, current market challenges have inhibited the adoption of low-carbon technologies across the sector. To identify and address current market pain points, RMI and Wells Fargo convened key industry experts, including leading developers, lenders, policy influencers, technical experts, and housing finance agencies, to engage in two interactive workshops on addressing existing market challenges inhibiting the advancement of low-carbon affordable multifamily housing.…

Building a Domestic Offshore Wind Supply Chain: Workshop Summary Report

In March 2022, the LEP brought together an extraordinary group of leaders and experts for a private, virtual event on to workshop a series of four white papers related to building a robust domestic supply chain to support the emerging offshore wind (OSW) industry in the United States and abroad.

The workshop, moderated by Kevin Knobloch, distinguished associate at the EFI and president of Knobloch Energy, built on the discussion and conclusions of the first LEP OSW roundtable held in March 2021.

The aim of this new workshop was to explore and discuss the issues raised in the four white …