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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Electricity is an integral part of all modern economies, supporting a range of critical services including health care, the internet and transportation. The secure supply of electricity is thus of paramount importance. Digitalization is rapidly transforming the electricity system, bringing many benefits for businesses and consumers. At the same time, increased connectivity and automation could raise risks to cybersecurity and the threat of cyberattacks. A successful cyberattack could trigger the loss of control over devices and processes in electricity systems, in turn causing physical damage and widespread service disruption.
Using real-world examples, this report offers guidance to policy makers, electric …
View Full ResourceElectricity is an integral part of all modern economies, supporting a range of critical services. Secure supply of electricity is of paramount importance. The power sector is going through fundamental changes with increasing pressure from climate change. Climate change directly affects every segment of the electricity system altering generation potential and efficiency, testing physical resilience of transmission and distribution networks, and changing demand patterns. Effective policy measures and co-ordinated action among key actors play a central role in building resilience to climate change.
This report provides an overview of the climate impacts on electricity systems. It describes how climate change …
View Full ResourceBuilding our nation’s resilience is an urgent priority. Our vulnerability to the stresses and shocks of climate change threatens US food, energy, water, transportation, and health security, imperiling our economy and our very well-being as a nation.
Our economy has never been more vulnerable to climate disasters such as droughts, flooding, storms, wildfires, and extreme weather like hurricanes and arctic storms. The consequences of this fragility disproportionally affect those already vulnerable or marginalized by structural economic, social, racial, and environmental inequities.
The Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious commitment to tackle the climate crisis offers a timely and unprecedented opportunity to address this …
View Full ResourceHousing insecurity and the impacts of climate change are interrelated issues increasingly affecting cities across the United States. The communities most significantly burdened by housing costs and housing instability are also the most at-risk from climate impacts like worsening heat waves and extreme weather events; the COVID-19 pandemic has shed further light on the challenge of housing insecurity in the U.S. Community land trusts (CLTs) can present useful partnerships to simultaneously tackle these challenges by promoting community ownership and decision-making, and providing permanently affordable and resilient housing.
To help state and community leaders support community land trusts and work to …
View Full ResourceThe United States needs to radically enhance its efforts to build community disaster resilience. The frequency and cost of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters have increased significantly over the past decade. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s estimates, the direct costs of disasters between 2018 and 2019 amounted to over $136 billion. And 2017 Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria resulted in over $265 billion in damage and displaced many communities. Moreover, accelerated urbanization and climate change continue to exacerbate communities’ vulnerability to climate disasters, rendering the current disaster mitigation, recovery, and emergency response policies untenable in the near …
View Full ResourceCustomers choose to install microgrids based on a wide range of motivations, which often include increasing reliability and resilience, decreasing electricity costs, expanding access to clean energy, and/or providing power to remote communities (e.g., when extending the existing transmission/distribution grid is infeasible or too costly). Customer motivations are not mutually exclusive; in fact, customers often have multiple motivations for installing a microgrid, such as increasing renewable generation while improving reliability and resilience. This paper cites numerous examples of operational microgrids across the country that represent one or more of these objectives.…
View Full ResourceThis Summary of 2020 Activities describes steps we have taken, and will take, to plan and design infrastructure, and conduct operations, in a manner that addresses the effects of climate change. Our efforts will help us to maintain a safe working environment, support for our customers and communities, and operational excellence as the climate changes.
We recognize that our approach needs to be flexible as more is learned about climate change impacts. Continued collaboration with stakeholders will be key to our ability to continue to provide safe, reliable, resilient energy to our customers in a changing climate…
View Full ResourceCOVID-19 has created particular hardship for rural communities across the US. Farming and forestry communities also face unique challenges as their economic future is inextricably linked with the climate. Rooted in Resilience explores the potential for legislative packages focused on economic stimulus to leverage US lands, from farms to forests, to recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic while also driving climate action.…
View Full ResourceIncreased 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.…
View Full ResourceImproved resilience has emerged as a top priority for the U.S. power grid. Efforts to mitigate wildfire risk in Northern California last year led to hundreds of thousands of electricity customers being disconnected from the grid. During hurricane season, customers in the Eastern and Southern U.S. often face the associated threat of multi-day power outages. In many other parts of the country, portions of the local power grid are susceptible to interruptions due to a variety of other factors. Improved resilience would reduce or avoid those outages, allowing industries, businesses, and households to maintain their uninterrupted supply of electricity.
Resilience …
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