An Action Plan for Carbon Capture and Storage in California: Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions

“An Action Plan for Carbon Capture and Storage in California: Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions” provides policymakers with options for near-term actions to deploy carbon capture and storage (CCS) to meet California’s climate goals.…

How a Green Bank Can Drive the North Carolina Clean Energy Economy: A Market Opportunity Overview

This report provides an analysis of clean energy finance opportunities that will accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy in North Carolina. Green Banks have been proven as an effective engine for job creation by leveraging public resources to catalyze private investment, which is particularly relevant in this time of high unemployment. These institutions have helped states make progress on renewable portfolio standards and other greenhouse gas emission goals. Green bank financing can also assist municipal, industrial, commercial, and agricultural facilities transition to cleaner energy resources and lower operational costs. A North Carolina Green Bank (or Clean Energy Fund) …

The Energy Efficiency Gap and Energy Price Responsiveness in Food Processing

To better understand this, EIA commissioned Leidos, Inc., to prepare the following report The Energy Efficiency Gap and Energy Price Responsiveness in Food Processing. The report provides an analysis of this efficiency gap, as well as elasticities calculated in the stochastic frontier energy demand estimation process, which allow EIA to estimate how much of an efficiency improvement may be available in the food processing industry. In simulating efficiency improvements (by setting the target level of efficiency based on a percentile of the cumulative efficiency distribution), the estimate of potential reduction in energy use is by definition smaller but empirically more …

Time-Varying Rates in New England: Opportunities for Reform

​Although some New England utilities offer modernized rates for special applications, like electric vehicles and battery storage, there is substantial room for improvement in time-varying residential pricing. This policy brief, the last in a series examining rate design issues across New England, looks more closely at time-varying rates offered by utilities in the region. It discusses how such rates could be updated to be consistent with ratemaking principles and increase the benefits to both consumers and utilities, and offers examples from both inside and outside New England of utilities deploying more well-designed time-varying rates.…

The Challenge of Decarbonizing Heavy Transport

The transportation sector is responsible for about one-quarter of global GHG emissions and emissions are growing, even in the developed world where other emissions are generally flat. Liquid fuels made from oil dominate the sector; they are easy to transport and store, contain a great deal of energy for their weight and volume, and enable use of internal combustion engines. The degree of difficulty in decarbonizing transport varies across the sector. Electrification is relatively easy for smaller vehicles that travel shorter distances carrying lighter loads. For these vehicles, the added weight of a battery is less of a hindrance and …

Expanding the Reach of a Carbon Tax: Emissions Impacts of Pricing Combined with Additional Climate Actions

Putting a price on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions can help governments reduce them rapidly and in a cost-effective manner. While 10 carbon tax bills have been proposed in the 116th US Congress, carbon prices alone are not enough to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury. Additional policies are needed to complement an economy-wide carbon tax and further cut CO2 from the US energy system.

This study aims to provide a better understanding of such policy combinations. It projects the energy CO2 emissions impacts of two carbon taxes, starting in 2021, that span the rates in the carbon tax bills in Congress. …

A Survey of North American City Climate Leaders: The Prospects for Climate Action in the COVID-19 Era

In response to this question, a team from Boston University and the Innovation Network for
Communities surveyed a small set of city climate leaders in the U.S. to gain a critical
perspective from practitioners working at the city level. The survey addresses questions
about the current priority of climate actions in cities and the likelihood of implementation,
the financial implications of the pandemic, and top climate actions that city leaders will take
in the next eighteen months that impact climate change, the economy, and equity. Survey
participants responded to over seventy questions related to climate actions that impact citywide policies …

Climate Insights 2020: Electric Vehicles

According to some natural scientists and economists, one potential step to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change would be the widespread adoption of all-electric vehicles (EVs), which can be powered by electricity generated by sunlight, wind, and water. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (see below), transportation emits more greenhouse gases than any other sector in the US, attributable to transportation’s near-complete dependence on fossil fuels. Thus, emissions can be dramatically reduced by widespread adoption of EVs. Perhaps partly for this reason, manufacturing and sales of EVs have been increasing in recent years. Still, thus far, such sales represent …

Carbon Markets in Agriculture: A Market-Based Conservation Solution

Voluntary carbon markets allow farmers and foresters to get paid for using climate-friendly practices while helping companies reduce their carbon footprint. Given these positive outcomes, it’s no surprise voluntary carbon markets have received increasing support from policymakers on both sides of the aisle.

In a new policy study, R Street Director of Government Affairs, Caroline Kitchens, delves into the benefits and challenges of implementing voluntary carbon markets. With voluntary carbon markets increasing in popularity in both the private sector and Capitol Hill, bills such as Growing Solutions Act are gaining traction.…

Colorado 2030: Committing to Equitable Climate Action

Colorado policymakers have an opportunity to foster a rapid transition to clean energy that results in steep reductions in deadly air pollution. “Committing to Climate Action: Equitable Pathways for Meeting Colorado’s Climate Goals” is a report that brings together analysis from Evolved Energy Research, GridLab, NRDC, Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Health Energy (PSE), and Sierra Club to outline pathways for the state to effectively reduce their greenhouse gas emissions—with little to no increase in energy costs.

The report also analyzes the health and equity implications of each pathway to chart how various solutions, timelines, and delays impact air pollution …