UNLOCKING MID-CENTURY DEEP DECARBONIZATION: A Report from the 2020 Winter Energy Forum

To stabilize global temperatures at a sustainable level, global greenhouse gas emissions need to reach net zero by 2050. This reality must guide how we support technology development, craft governmental policy, and invest capital. Midcentury deep decarbonization is most achievable with a technology-inclusive climate strategy and will likely require maintaining the zero-carbon resources that are already in operation, accelerating deployment of existing zero-carbon technologies, and boosting innovation for new technologies such as zero-carbon hydrogen and direct air capture of carbon dioxide.

On February 24-26, the 2020 Winter Energy Roundtable convened a broad cross-section of leaders from industry, academia, government, the …

Post-COVID Recovery: An Agenda for Resilience, Development and Equality

Increased uptake of renewables, energy efficiency and related energy-transition measures represent far-sighted investment amid the crisis set off by the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of short-term stimulus and recovery plans, the energy transition provides a crucial link to medium- and long-term global climate and sustainability goals.

This report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) offers practical advice on key investment and policy decisions for the crucial post-COVID recovery. It is rooted in the comprehensive long-term energy transformation strategy provided by IRENA’s first Global Renewables Outlook.…

U.S. Energy Independence

OEP webinar presentation from Yossie Hollander. Hollander discusses oil markets, how we power the transportation sector, and America’s goal of energy independence.

To view the webinar, click here.…

SOCIAL COST OF CARBON: Identifying a Federal Entity to Address the National Academies’ Recommendations Could Strengthen Regulatory Analysis

When assessing the costs and benefits of proposed environmental regulations, federal agencies use estimates of the “social cost of carbon”—economic damages from increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

According to EPA, these gases stay in the atmosphere long enough to become “well mixed”—contributing to global damages regardless of their origin. Current national estimates are based on domestic damages and are about 7 times lower than prior estimates based on global damages.…

The Race Gap in Residential Energy Expenditures

Black households have higher residential energy expenditures than white households in the US. This residential energy expenditure gap persists after controlling for income, household size, homeowner status, and city of residence. It decreased but did not disappear between 2010 and 2017, and it is fairly stable in levels across the income distribution, except at the top. Controlling for home type or vintage does not eliminate the gap, but survey evidence on housing characteristics and available appliances is consistent with the gap being driven at least in part by differences in housing stock and related energy efficiency investments.…

Scientists’ Warning on Affluence

For over half a century, worldwide growth in affluence has continuously increased resource use and pollutant emissions far more rapidly than these have been reduced through better technology. The affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts and are central to any future prospect of retreating to safer environmental conditions. We summarise the evidence and present possible solution approaches. Any transition towards sustainability can only be effective if far-reaching lifestyle changes complement technological advancements. However, existing societies, economies and cultures incite consumption expansion and the structural imperative for growth in competitive market economies inhibits necessary societal change.…

Clean Trucks, Big Bucks: California Energy Policy Simulator evaluation of the proposed Advanced Clean Trucks Rule

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has proposed new zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) requirements through its Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) proceeding. Under the revised proposal released April 28, 2020, the regulation would require about 60 percent of new medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold in California to be ZEVs by 2035. This report evaluates the proposed rule using the California Energy Policy Simulator (EPS). First, we provide an independent check of the conclusions reached in CARB’s regulatory analysis. We modify key variables in the California EPS, drawing on the evidence CARB has collected and find that the effects of the proposed rule …

State + Local Decarbonization Policies for the South

Communities in the South are coming to terms with their new reality: life in the era of climate change. The region is highly exposed to climate change impacts given its extreme vulnerabilty to increased temperatures and rising sea levels, low levels of climate mitigation and adaptation to date, and high level of inequality (GCRP, 2018; Muro et al., 2019). A recent study showed that as global warming intensifies, economic losses will disproportionately affect the South (Hsiang et al., 2017). While some warming and sea level rise are already locked in, bold action on climate mitigation and adaptation policy now can …

Availability of Risky Geoengineering Can Make an Ambitious Climate Mitigation Agreement More Likely

Some countries prefer high to low mitigation (H ≻ L). Some prefer low to high (L ≻ H). That fundamental disagreement is at the heart of the seeming intractability of negotiating a climate mitigation agreement. Modelling global climate negotiations as a weakest-link game brings this to the fore: Unless everyone prefers H to L, L wins. Enter geoengineering (G). Its risky and imperfect nature makes it arguably inferior to any country’s preferred mitigation outcome. However, absent a global high-mitigation agreement, countries facing disastrous climate damages might indeed wish to undertake it, effectively ranking H ≻ G ≻ L. Meanwhile, those …

Federal Land Agency Lags on Solar Development Approvals Across Southwest U.S.

The largest property owner in the U.S.—the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)—has acreage set aside for utility-scale solar development on only 0.03% of the roughly 100 million acres it manages across the sun-rich Southwest, finds a report published today by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

The report—Federal Land Agency Lags on Solar Development Approvals Across Southwest U.S.—urges “stronger direction from above” over state- and field-level BLM offices that may otherwise be resistant to approving permits for utility-scale solar installations on public lands.…