The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
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Persistent, systemic harms have resulted in inequalities in wealth distribution, energy insecurity, infrastructure reliability, heat island exposure, and preexisting health conditions, all of which have exacerbated climate change driven damages. Efforts to decarbonize our energy system to address the climate crisis must seize the opportunity to reduce inequality. Doing so requires a multidisciplinary approach to assess the tradeoffs between alternative decarbonization pathways. In this Perspective we introduce an Equitable Deep Decarbonization Framework for mapping the tenets of energy justice to the practice of large-scale deep decarbonization pathways modeling designed to facilitate this multidisciplinary effort. We provide discussion of key considerations …
View Full ResourceOn August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) into law. The IRA provides $369 billion in strategic investment to promote clean energy and climate justice. It is the strongest congressional climate action plan yet, one that will reduce energy bills, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, spur clean energy innovation, and strengthen domestic manufacturing.
NRDC analyzed the potential energy, emissions, and economic benefits of the IRA’s extension and enhancement of clean electricity credits. To do so, we evaluated a modeled package very similar to the IRA’s final tax package, including the bulk of the …
View Full ResourceWholesale electricity and justice are not terms often joined together. While it can be difficult to trace the consequences of federal decisions to their localized impacts, it can and should be done. Here are some targeted recommendations.
FERC’s position in the energy system—in charge of the wholesale, interstate portions of the grid—gives it a role that is consequential and opaque. Everyday consumers rarely link bill increases to FERC’s actions, and these actions can have major impacts on disadvantaged communities. FERC should adopt a consistent, robust analytical process for assessing the equity implications of orders—including estimating bill impacts across consumer classes …
View Full ResourceOpposition to carbon pricing has come not only from the fossil fuel lobby, as might be expected, but also from environmental justice (EJ) advocates who seek to end the disproportionate environmental harms imposed upon people of color and low-income communities, and who fear that carbon pricing could reinforce rather than remedy pollution exposure disparities.
This paper focuses on the objections to carbon pricing that EJ advocates have raised. They argue that carbon pricing (i) fails to reduce emissions significantly, (ii) fails to reduce the disproportionate impacts of hazardous co-pollutants on people of color and low-income communities; (iii) hits low-income households …
View Full ResourceA new analysis commissioned by the BlueGreen Alliance from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst finds that the more than 100 climate, energy, and environmental investments in the Inflation Reduction Act will create more than 9 million good jobs over the next decade—an average of nearly 1 million jobs each year. That includes more than 6 million jobs created over the next 10 years by grants, loans, and tax credits and nearly 3 million jobs stimulated by new loan guarantee authority for the U.S. Department of Energy. The bill’s broad investments will also help …
View Full ResourceOn August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. The IRA’s $369 billion in funding for emissions-reducing climate and clean energy provisions run the gamut from clean energy and electric vehicle (EV) tax credits to large-scale investments in domestic clean technology manufacturing to advancing environmental justice. The IRA also requires auctions for oil and gas on federal lands and waters prior to auctions for renewable energy projects and requires completion of several 2022 lease auctions that were previously canceled.
Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC® modeled the IRA’s impact on emissions reductions, job creation, and …
View Full ResourceOn July 27, 2022, the United States Senate released legislative text for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes $369 billion in funding for climate and clean energy provisions. These emissions-reducing provisions run the gamut from clean energy and electric vehicle tax credits to large-scale investments in domestic manufacturing of clean technologies and environmental justice. The IRA also requires auctions for oil and gas on federal lands and waters prior to auctions for renewable energy projects and requires completion of several 2022 lease auctions that were previously canceled.
Energy Innovation modeled the IRA to estimate its impact on emissions reductions, …
View Full ResourceResearch on 100% renewable energy systems is a relatively recent phenomenon. It was initiated in the mid-1970s, catalyzed by skyrocketing oil prices. Since the mid-2000s, it has quickly evolved into a prominent research field encompassing an expansive and growing number of research groups and organizations across the world. The main conclusion of most of these studies is that 100% renewables is feasible worldwide at low cost. Advanced concepts and methods now enable the field to chart realistic as well as cost- or resource-optimized and efficient transition pathways to a future without the use of fossil fuels. Such proposed pathways in …
View Full ResourceIn this deep-dive paper, we document some of the knock-on effects of what may appear to be “green” strategies within one country. We also examine the provision of fossil fuel subsidies and compare them with the availability of “green” finance. The point is that these negative outcomes are not inevitable; nor are they necessary “collateral damage” in otherwise positive shifts to green energy use. We argue that avoiding these impacts requires changes in strategy not only for lower-income economies, but even more urgently in rich countries and at the global level. Such change will incorporate climate justice in the transition …
View Full ResourcePresident Biden campaigned and won on the most ambitious climate agenda in our nation’s history. But over a year into President Biden’s first term, the U.S. federal fossil fuel program remains inconsistent with his stated national climate pollution target and the goals of the Paris Agreement. If the federal fossil fuel program continues on its current trajectory, it will be impossible for the Biden administration to meet its climate obligations. After all, the science is resoundingly clear: no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be developed anywhere globally, if we hope to stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.…
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