Economic, Emissions Impact Of Trump Fuel Economy Rollback-Emissions Standards Freeze: U.S., California, Canada

The Trump Administration’s proposed fuel economy standard rollback and emissions standards freeze will harm consumers and the environment. This research note finds the proposal would cost the U.S. economy up to $400 billion through 2050, increase U.S. emissions up to 10%, and gasoline use up to 7.6 billion barrels through 2035. It would also cost Canada up to $70 billion through 2050 and increase its emissions up to 11% by 2035.…

2019 Utility Energy Storage Market Snapshot

2018 was a banner year for energy storage growth with the residential and Public Power Utility markets thriving under favorable policies and falling costs, growing by 1400% and 500% respectively. Across the residential, non-residential, and utility-supply markets SEPA found a 2018 market growth of 44%.

The utility survey underpinning this annual, must-read report yields insight into the national market, industry trends, policy impacts, and energy storage technology. Download this report to get what no other industry report can deliver, unbiased analysis and figures based on verified interconnection data from over 211 US utilities.…

Tech@Risk: The Domestic Innovation, Technology Deployment, Manufacturing, and Jobs at Risk in Stepping Away from Global Leadership on Clean Cars

In this report, we unpack these topline statistics and look in detail at the impact of less stringent standards on demand for clean vehicle technologies and the companies that build them. We look both at today’s vehicle technology manufacturing jobs that may be impacted if standards are weakened, and estimate the impact on future jobs and job growth in the industry.…

A Framework for the Green Real Deal

The threats posed by climate change to the world, our nation, and our way of life present an unprecedented and urgent challenge. Subnational entities have adopted aggressive carbon reduction targets and public support is mounting for climate action in the United States. In this context, a coalition-building and pragmatic strategy is needed—one that minimizes costs, maximizes economic opportunities, accelerates solutions, and promotes social equity—to translate climate mitigation ambitions into action. This is The Green Real Deal—A Framework for Achieving a Deeply Decarbonized Economy.…

The Role of Energy Storage in Deep Decarbonization of Electricity Production

Deep decarbonization of electricity production is a societal challenge that can be achieved with high penetrations of variable renewable energy. We investigate the potential of energy storage technologies to reduce renewable curtailment and CO2 emissions in California and Texas under varying emissions taxes. We show that without energy storage, adding 60 GW of renewables to California achieves 72% CO2 reductions (relative to a zero-renewables case) with close to one third of renewables being curtailed. Some energy storage technologies, on the other hand, allow 90% CO2 reductions from the same renewable penetrations with as little as 9% renewable curtailment. In Texas, …

Fact Sheet: Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal Costs

There is a long history of government intervention in energy markets. Numerous energy subsidies exist in the U.S. tax code to promote or subsidize the production of cheap and abundant fossil energy. Some of these subsidies have been around for a century, and while the United States has enjoyed unparalleled economic growth over the past 100 years—thanks in no small part to cheap energy—in many cases, the circumstances relevant at the time subsidies were implemented no longer exist. Today, the domestic fossil fuel industries (namely, coal, oil and natural gas) are mature and generally highly profitable. Additionally, numerous clean and …

Engineered CO2 Removal, Climate Restoration, and Humility

Over the past 200 years, humans have dramatically altered our global environmental envelope accidentally through uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions. Humans have also developed the technology to both stop emitting greenhouse gases and ultimately to remove them from the atmosphere through a combination of natural and engineered pathways. Ultimately, humanity must practice CO2 removal in addition to maximal reduction in greenhouse gas emissions through conventional mitigation to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately net-negative emissions. To accomplish this task will require enormous sums of money and substantial cooperation between groups of people who commonly do not work together: technical experts, …

Jobs in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Resilience Fact Sheet

This fact sheet focuses on employment in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in the United States and around the world. According to the 2019 U.S. Energy Employment Report (USEER), 611,000 people worked in zero-emission technology industries, including renewables and nuclear in the United States. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) recorded even higher renewable energy employment in the United States at 855,000 direct and indirect jobs in 2018. Jobs in energy efficiency experienced significant growth—the sector now employs more than 3 million people in the United States. IRENA reports that, globally, the renewable energy sector employed 11 million …

Redefining Air: Industry’s Pipeline to Power at EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation

Following a months-long investigation, today, U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), top Democrat on the EPW Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee unveiled, “Redefining Air: Industry’s Pipeline to Power at EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.” The report details efforts by former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum and his senior counsel, David Harlow, to achieve policy outcomes to the benefit of several industry organizations represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP (“Hunton”), the law firm at which Wehrum and Harlow worked prior to their …

An inter-model assessment of the role of direct air capture in deep mitigation pathways

The feasibility of large-scale biological CO2 removal to achieve stringent climate targets remains unclear. Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) offers an alternative negative emissions technology (NET) option. Here we conduct the first inter-model comparison on the role of DACCS in 1.5 and 2 °C scenarios, under a variety of techno-economic assumptions. Deploying DACCS significantly reduces mitigation costs, and it complements rather than substitutes other NETs. The key factor limiting DACCS deployment is the rate at which it can be scaled up. Our scenarios’ average DACCS scale-up rates of 1.5 GtCO2/yr would require considerable sorbent production and up to …