Matching Geographies and Job Skills in the Energy Transition

Driven by technological innovation, public policy, and other factors, the US energy system is facing rapid changes, raising concerns over potential job losses, particularly among fossil fuel workers. Because there will be considerable variation across the United States in the employment impacts of a changing energy landscape, policies must be tailored to local contexts. This analysis develops and implements a tool to help policymakers understand the localized opportunities and challenges that the US energy workforce may face in the years ahead. We first identify the exposure of local labor markets to job displacement in fossil fuel extraction, transportation, processing, and …

Opportunities for Competitive Policy Mechanisms to Improve Carbon Dioxide Removal

Advances in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology are generating new debate around the role of government in their adoption. To date, public policy mechanisms like grants and tax credits have subsidized this technology, but questions linger about whether improved policy mechanisms could accelerate the adoption of CDR at a lower cost to the public. There is also debate regarding the extent to which government should spur CDR technology. Conventional economic theory notes that the presence of private-sector demand for a new technology should diminish the need for public support, but the commodity provided by CDR—reduced pollution— is a public good, …

Hydrogen Hubs and Demonstrating the Hydrogen Energy Value Chain

Hydrogen hubs are emerging centers of activity involving hydrogen production, transport, delivery, and end use to provide modern energy services such as mobility, goods movement, heat for manufacturing processes, and other services. A future economy using hydrogen as an energy carrier and fuel could offer an alternative method to provide the many modern energy services associated with fossil fuels. In addition to providing a fuel for transportation—one of the larger applications envisaged—hydrogen can support industrial processes or building operations or can become part of the energy infrastructure by storing energy.…

The Role of Information in Distributed Energy Resource Deployment and Policy

Distributed energy resources (DERs) play an important and growing role in the electricity grid and the clean energy transition. Technological improvements, consumer preferences, and state and federal policies all make it likely that DERs’ role will continue to grow. However, efficient deployment and operation of these resources still require smart policies. While appropriate compensation for DERs has received considerable attention in DER policy discussions, one important dimension has received less attention: informational gaps and asymmetries. In particular, key information about distribution networks, energy consumption, and marginal emission rates is often either entirely lacking or readily available only to some parties.…

Inflation Reduction Act Investment for Tribal and Indigenous Communities

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) directs over $722 million specifically to Tribal and Indigenous communities and includes another $46 billion that Tribal and Indigenous communities are eligible to apply for. For electrification, the IRA makes available over $35 billion in resources to Tribal and Indigenous communities, if they take full advantage of all the money in the IRA. This brief outlines the IRA provisions designated to help Tribal and Indigenous communities lower their energy costs, transform their energy systems and reduce pollution through efficient, beneficial electrification.…

Federal Vehicle Fleets: Observations on the Transition to Electric Vehicles

This report addresses: What is the composition, use, and location of federal fleets? What is the potential for federal fleets to transition to electric vehicles?

To address the first objective, GAO analyzed government-wide data on vehicles in federal agency fleets. We determined that these data were generally reliable for providing high-level depictions of federal fleets, such as describing their overall composition and location. However, they may not be detailed or consistent enough to provide accurate and reliable vehicle-level analyses, such as day-to-day use. To address the second objective, we analyzed GSA information on the vehicles agencies can purchase or lease …

Gas Bubble 2022: US Edition

It has been a tumultuous year for economies dependent on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European countries have scrambled to secure shipments of the superchilled fossil fuel as an alternative to piped Russian gas. A tight LNG market has sent prices skyrocketing, leaving Asian countries to pay exorbitant sums for shipments—or not, with some emerging economies undergoing blackouts. Companies exporting LNG from the United States and elsewhere have reaped enormous profits, at the expense of domestic consumers. All of this is occurring in a year in which heat waves, droughts, and floods continue to …

Resilient Solar and Battery Storage for Cooling Centers

This report, prepared by Clean Energy Group (CEG) with American Microgrid Solutions (AMS), examines the opportunity for resilient power, solar PV paired with battery storage (solar+storage), to provide reliable backup power to cooling centers when times of extreme heat coincide with power outages. Health impacts of extreme heat, the implications of extreme heat on the electric grid, and future extreme heat trends are also discussed. The report includes seven case studies, a critical facility in each region of the country, each with a technoeconomic analysis for installing and operating solar+storage. The report concludes with a discussion of project economics and …

Clean Hydrogen’s Place in the Energy Transition

For many decades fossil hydrogen has been an integral part of our energy society.

From being an essential component for powering the first internal combustion engine more than 200 years ago, to becoming an essential part of the modern agricultural and oil refining industry. 

Since the start of the War in Ukraine natural gas prices, a major feedstock for producing fossil fuel-produced hydrogen (blue and grey), has soared by more than 70% on international markets triggering an energy crisis and pushing lawmakers worldwide to urgently source alternative sources of fuel.

Clean Hydrogen’s Place in the Energy Transition finds the surge …

Coordinated Transmission Development for Offshore Wind in Multi-State RTOs

The Business Network’s Proposal for Coordinated Transmission Development for Offshore Wind in Multi-State RTOs outlines a framework for greater regional collaboration on offshore wind transmission planning and buildout. The policy brief, authored by John Dalton, President of Power Advisory LLC and head of the Network’s Grid & Transmission Working Group, was released ahead of the expected published results of New Jersey’s offshore wind transmission solicitation to connect 7.5 GW of generation to the grid. The brief builds upon the evident success of the state’s transmission solicitation, which spurred dozens of private sector bids, and offers a framework for multi-state transmission …