Refined Coal Production Tax Credit: Coordinated Agency Review Could Help Ensure the Credit Achieves Its Intended Purpose

Since 2004, the federal government has offered a tax credit that supports the production of refined coal, which could help reduce air pollution. Producers claimed nearly $9 billion in these credits since 2010. To claim the credit, producers must certify that burning refined coal emits fewer pollutants than conventional coal.

The credit potentially overlaps with other federal programs, but IRS, Treasury, Energy, and EPA haven’t reviewed potential overlap or whether the tax credit has achieved its purpose.

If Congress extends the credit, which expires in December 2021, a coordinated agency review could help determine if changes are needed.…

U.S. Building Stock Characterization Study: A National Typology for Decarbonizing U.S. Buildings

The report provides key decision makers a foundational tool to identify technology requirements and engineering solutions for moving the existing U.S. building stock toward a net-zero-carbon future. This analysis supports a key initiative of DOE’s Building Technologies Office—the Advanced Building Construction (ABC) Initiative.

The national building characterization study will serve as a foundational data source and tool for future analyses, such as assessments of the potential impacts of retrofit packages on building thermal energy use, including heating, cooling, ventilation, and water heating. Supporting the development of decarbonization strategies for the U.S. building stock, these retrofit packages will range from …

Manufacturing Investments to Build Back Better

Provisions included in the House passed Build Better Back Act (BBBA) legislation are essential to getting this job done. The bill makes an historic investment in the expansion and retooling of domestic clean energy, vehicle and component manufacturing, the transformation of our industrial sector to reduce emissions and enhance competitiveness, as well as the necessary efforts to build out robust supply chains for critical clean technologies—all while building good jobs nationwide and investing in the communities that need it most. We urge the Senate to pass it.

All of the United States’ major economic competitors—particularly China—are making significant and strategic …

Build Back Better Act Methane Emissions Charge: In Brief

On November 19, 2021, the House passed the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376, also referred to
as the budget reconciliation bill). Among other provisions, the bill includes a charge on methane emissions from selected entities in the oil and gas industry.1 The charge would apply only to methane emissions from specific types of facilities that are required to report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Program (GHGRP). The charge would start at $900 per metric ton of methane, …

Offshore Wind in the Eastern United States

In this policy brief, we present an estimate of the baseline costs and benefits of OSW deployment in the eastern United States absent federal tax incentives or projected future technology improvements to advance the understanding of the “raw cost” for a hypothetical offshore wind project as of the end of 2020. Technology and exact costs may change, but this analysis can serve as a starting template for evaluating the financial viability of OSW projects.…

2021 California Green Innovation Index

The report finds total greenhouse gas emissions dropped 1.6 percent between 2018 and 2019—the second largest percentage decrease since 2010—but far short of what is needed to comply with California’s mandate to cut emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. California must now sustain a 4.3 percent annual decrease through 2030—a reduction that is more than 2.5 times greater than was achieved in 2019. While California’s vibrant clean energy economy is supporting strong job numbers, it is failing to deliver the necessary annual emissions reductions, as slowing renewable energy growth, underwhelming transportation sector gains, and a worrisome cross-sector over-dependence …

Mapping County-Level Exposure and Vulnerability to the US Energy Transition

This working paper examines where economic changes associated with the US energy transition are concentrated, as well as which communities are most vulnerable to this transition.…

The Global Diffusion of Electric Vehicles: Lessons from the First Decade

Electrifying the transportation sector is key to reaching the goal of carbon neutrality. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the diffusion of passenger electric vehicles based on detailed data on model-level electrical vehicle sales across the world from 2013 to 2020. The analysis shows that the highly uneven electrical vehicle penetration across countries is partly driven by cross-country variation in incentives and especially in the availability of charging infrastructure. Investment in charging infrastructure would have been much more cost-effective than consumer purchase subsidies in promoting electrical vehicle adoption. This finding highlights the importance of expanding charging infrastructure in the …

Clean Jobs Colorado 2021

Driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis, Colorado experienced its first decline in clean energy jobs in 2020 since E2 began tracking the industry with this methodology in 2017. Colorado’s clean energy economy employed more than 58,000 workers at the end of 2020, down from 62,400 the year before, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data and the findings of a national survey of more than 35,000 businesses across the U.S. economy.

By May of last year, more than 7,500 clean energy workers in Colorado had lost their jobs since the COVID-19 …

Transmission Siting Reforms in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021

This policy brief highlights Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provisions that are relevant to transmission siting, summarizes the changes they effectuate, and describes important implications of those changes for efforts to develop more interstate transmission capacity. It then offers a brief assessment of the IIJA’s overarching significance to such efforts, including by comparing them to a more ambitious legislative alternative.…