Pipeline Bubble 2021: Tracking Global Oil and Gas Pipelines

This report provides the results of a global survey of oil and gas transmission pipelines carried out by Global Energy Monitor at the close of 2020.…

Expanding the Scope of Commercial Opportunities for Investor-Owned Electric Utilities

Technological advances and a more engaged customer population are pushing utilities and their regulators towards new strategies that promote growth and transformation.  Common to many of these efforts is an interest in expanding the set of profit-generating product and service offerings, hereafter referred to as alternative commercial opportunities, beyond just buying and selling electricity.  Prior work has focused on specific categories and types of alternative commercial opportunities and in specific market segments. The report fills an important gap in the literature in two ways.  First, we develop a comprehensive taxonomy to categorize the alternative commercial opportunities and provide numerous examples …

Benefit-Cost Analysis for Utility-Facing Grid Modernization Investments: Trends, Challenges, and Considerations

In recent years, many electric utilities have submitted grid modernization plans for review by state public utility commissions. A central objective of these plans is to demonstrate that grid modernization investments will provide net benefits to customers, be reasonable and be in the public interest. The plans typically include some form of benefit-cost analysis, but the assumptions, methodologies and frameworks vary considerably between utilities.…

Integrated Clean Capacity Market: A Competitive Market for Powering the Clean Electricity Future

This white paper, prepared by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Staff (“Staff”) and consultants at The Brattle Group (“Brattle”), presents for public discussion a new resource adequacy concept centered on achievement of state clean energy requirements and locational reliability needs through a single integrated market, paving the way for a smooth, cost-effective transition to the clean energy grid of the future. …

2021 Policy Agenda

The U.S. faces unprecedented challenges in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic while building a secure and affordable energy future to overcome the climate crisis. Perhaps more than any other energy resource, energy efficiency holds tremendous potential to address these challenges by creating jobs and economic activity while sharply reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and slashing energy costs for households and businesses. This document outlines the Alliance to Save Energy’s immediate policy priorities for stimulating investment and activity in the efficiency sector that President-elect Joe Biden’s administration and the 117th Congress should address in the early months of 2021. In addition …

Ensuring Energy Security in a Renewables World

Renewable sources of energy are gaining an increasing share of the US energy mix, bolstered by state-level commitments as well as corporate power purchase agreements. However, while renewables have become increasingly cost competitive, they still face challenges, especially related to intermittency and storage.

The Global Energy Center’s new issue brief, “Ensuring Energy Security in a Renewables World,” by Ben Hertz-Shargel explores the energy security implications of greater integration of renewables into the grid. The issue brief looks at intermittence and the need for flexible capacity, grid stability, long-distance transmission, and cybersecurity. Hertz-Shargel also examines the episodes of wildfires and extreme …

The Costs Of Delay

New modeling using the Energy Policy Simulator compares illustrative climate policy scenarios reaching net-zero cumulative emissions in the United States by 2050, one starting in 2021 and the second delaying until 2030. The delayed 2030 Scenario results in nearly three-quarters higher cumulative capital, operational, and fuel expenditures than the early action 2021 Scenario. Waiting until 2030 to enact net zero emissions policy also requires a much faster rate of clean energy deployment and will result in more stranded assets if we continue investing in fossil fueled power plants, factories, and equipment. This report explains why even a short-term delay in …

Pathways for Just Transitions: Gender-Responsive Policies and Place-Based Investment

Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to the planet, requiring rapid economic and social transformations that will affect workers and communities and have broader impacts on society. Governments, labor groups, investors, civil society, and environmental organizations are increasingly using the principles of just transitions to address the social implications of climate policy and ensure that workers and communities are supported and empowered through these changes. There is ample theoretical guidance on how to pursue just transitions at a societal level, but it is essential to make the tools and strategies for just transitions more accessible and relevant to policymakers. This …

America’s Competitive Electric Future: 100-Day Roadmap for Cleaner, Reliable, Affordable, and Innovative Power Generation

America runs on electricity. As the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic while modernizing its electric power grid, leaders have an opportunity to foster bipartisan progress on all fronts: our economy, our environment, and our energy future. Competition in wholesale power markets delivers tremendous benefits: it reduces electricity costs, improves reliability, puts consumers first, and enhances access for cleaner energy and new technologies.

America’s economic strength and future success demand that we keep essential services running, minimize the cost burden on families and businesses, and create a strong foundation built on competition and innovation to bring least-cost energy solutions
to …

Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System

The world is transforming its energy system from one dominated by fossil fuel combustion to one with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary anthropogenic greenhouse gas. This energy transition is critical to mitigating climate change, protecting human health, and revitalizing the U.S. economy. To help policymakers, businesses, communities, and the public better understand what a net-zero transition would mean for the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a committee of experts to investigate how the U.S. could best decarbonize its transportation, electricity, buildings, and industrial sectors.

This report, Accelerating Decarbonization of the United …