A Green Steel Deal: Toward Pro-Jobs, Pro-Climate Transatlantic Cooperation on Carbon Border Measures

The climate crisis is the most important long-term challenge facing policymakers around the world. Addressing it will require deep economic transformations within and across national borders, and a mix of ambition and pragmatism about what nations’ individual political and legal constraints will permit.

In this working paper, Roosevelt Director of Governance Studies Todd N. Tucker and Vanderbilt Law School’s Timothy Meyer argue that the US, the EU, and like-minded countries should impose a common external tariff on carbon-intensive steel imports, while—as the Paris Agreement contemplates—allowing each other flexibility to pursue a range of decarbonization strategies domestically. By converting a climate-blocking …

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Scenarios: Background, Issues, and Policy Relevance

This report provides background on emissions scenarios, some of the main economic-energy models that have been used to construct emissions scenarios as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and national policy processes (including those of the United States), and some of the key findings of the scenarios consistent with keeping mean global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C. The report then concludes with observations for Congress.…

To Decarbonize Households, America Needs Incentives for Electric Appliances

Residential building electrification must be a major pillar of any federal infrastructure strategy and is an essential step on the path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. For U.S. households, electrification of heat and cooking appliances is centered around the adoption of just four appliances: heat pump space heaters, heat pump water heaters, induction cooktops/ranges, and upgraded breaker boxes. Because these machines last 10 to 20 years or more before needing replacement, completing the transition by midcentury requires the mass mobilization of U.S. markets and manufacturing today. In order to fully electrify these appliances—and all 121 million American …

The Effects of the Tax Reform on Energy and Environmental Research and Development

Changes in the 2017 tax reform to the tax treatment of research and development (R&D) may be an explanation for an observed increase in private sector R&D investment in energy and environmental R&D (E&E R&D). Prior to the tax reform, private sector E&E R&D was relatively stagnant, only increasing by 2 percent from 2012-2017. After the tax reform, E&E R&D jumped by $3.3 billion, or 11.8 percent. Private sector E&E R&D is roughly seven times as large as public sector R&D and fulfills a fundamentally different role in the innovation life cycle than public sector R&D, so the increase in …

Evidence of a Homeowner-Renter Gap for Electric Appliances

This paper provides the first empirical analysis of the homeowner-renter gap for electric appliances. Using U.S. nationally representative data, the analysis shows that renters are significantly more likely than homeowners to have electric heat, electric hot water heating, an electric stove, and an electric dryer. The gap is highly statistically significant, prevalent across regions, and holds after controlling for the type, size, and age of the home, as well as for climate and household characteristics. The paper argues that this gap arises from the same split incentives that lead to the “landlord-tenant problem” and discusses the implications of the gap …

2021 State Employment Fact Sheets

AEE’s State Employment Fact sheets demonstrate in 14 states that the advanced energy industry was a major employer at the end of 2020, had a base of growth in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and had employers projecting job growth in 2021 ranging from 6% to 8%.

The 14 advanced energy state employment fact sheets:

Report overall advanced energy employment at the end of 2020, broken down by industry segment; Compare advanced energy employment to other well-known industries; List the top five counties for advanced energy employment; and Provide a map of advanced energy jobs by county.

Benchmarking Methane and Other GHG Emissions of Oil & Natural Gas Production in the United States

This first-of-its-kind analysis provides investors, operators, natural gas purchasers, policymakers and regulators with the data needed to directly compare relative emissions intensity and total reported methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions for nearly 300 U.S. oil and gas producers. The results reveal dramatic variability between companies and basins.…

Fostering Industry Transition through Green Public Procurement: A “How to” Guide for the Cement & Steel Sectors

In this paper, jointly produced by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), we provide an overview of the key components of green public procurement (GPP) policy design and methodologies for target setting. We aim for this study to be a “how to guide”. To do this, we provide evidence on the role GPP can play in accelerating emissions reductions from harder to abate sectors with a focus on steel, cement and concrete, demonstrate national best practices, and explore the impact of a regional or global GPP procurement program on demand creation …

Six Reasons to Support a Blender’s Tax Credit for Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Aviation is responsible for a growing portion of transportation emissions. As air travel begins to bounce back post-COVID, we need to ensure the industry comes back stronger and cleaner than it was before. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, one of the most impactful things we can do to reduce aviation emissions is get more sustainable aviation fuel —”drop-in” fuels that can be used in today’s aircraft and which have lower emissions than fossil jet fuel on a lifecycle basis—into the jet fuel supply. But SAF is currently limited in availability and can’t currently compete with the price of …

Vehicle Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Standards: Frequently Asked Questions

On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 13990, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,” which directs federal agencies to review regulations and other agency actions from the Trump Administration, including the rules that revised the Obama Administration’s vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards.

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