The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): An Overview

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires U.S. transportation fuel to contain a minimum volume of renewable fuel. The RFS—established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58; EPAct05) and expanded in 2007 by the Energy Independence and Security Act (P.L. 110-140; EISA)—began with 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2006 and is scheduled to ascend to 36 billion gallons in 2022. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has statutory authority to determine the volume amounts after 2022.

The total renewable fuel statutory target consists of both conventional biofuel and advanced biofuel. Since 2014, the total renewable fuel statutory target …

Interpreting Tradable Credit Prices in Overlapping Vehicle Regulations

The rapid transformation of the US transportation sector is partly due to three policies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from light duty vehicles: the federal corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) standards and the state-level zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandates. Each policy includes a credit-trading program to reduce compliance costs for manufacturers and to allow flexibility for meeting the separate requirements. The prices of these credits can indicate the cost of reducing GHG emissions, either through fuel economy improvements or the sale of zero-emissions vehicles.

This study examines the effects of these overlapping regulations on manufacturer …

Safe Geologic Storage of Captured Carbon Dioxide: Two Decades of DOE’s Carbon Storage R&D Program in Review

A recently released report, “Safe Geologic Storage of Captured Carbon Dioxide: Two Decades of DOE’s Carbon Storage R&D Program in Review” dives into how the department and NETL and other national laboratories, research organizations, and industry stakeholders have worked collaboratively to meet the challenge of addressing the emission of greenhouse gases while ensuring the continued use of fossil fuels that underpin our nation’s economic prosperity.

One of the most successful pillars of DOE’s Carbon Storage Program is the NETL-managed Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) Initiative, which began in 2003 with a characterization phase that focused on collecting and analyzing data …

Determining Utility System Value of Demand Flexibility from Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings

The work described in this study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, under Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. This study was prepared under DOE’s authority to encourage and facilitate the exchange of information among State and local governments with respect to energy conservation and energy efficiency, and provide technical assistance on such matters. This study was specifically prepared for the use and dissemination of the State and Local Energy Efficiency (SEE) Action Network, a DOE program that DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency facilitate, …

Clean Energy Standard for Industry: Scoping Analysis

An analysis of the potential for policy-driven emissions reductions in three major industrial sectors: iron and steel, cement, and petrochemicals, with focus on a clean energy standard.…

Managing Investment Revenues and Costs in the Transportation Climate Initiative Region

Allowance price and revenue variability could pose a challenge for the investment of auction proceeds to modernize transportation infrastructure in the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI). A price staircase could stabilize revenues and automatically increase the stringency of the program if costs are lower than expected.…

Technologies and Policies to Decarbonize Global Industry: Review and Assessment of Mitigation Drivers through 2070

Fully decarbonizing global industry is essential to achieving climate stabilization, and reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050–2070 is necessary to limit global warming to 2 °C. This paper assembles and evaluates technical and policy interventions, both on the supply side and on the demand side. It identifies measures that, employed together, can achieve net zero industrial emissions in the required timeframe. Key supply-side technologies include energy efficiency (especially at the system level), carbon capture, electrification, and zero-carbon hydrogen as a heat source and chemical feedstock. There are also promising technologies specific to each of the three top-emitting industries: …

The United States Mineral Supply Insecurity and Dependence on Rare Earth Elements

Despite the trade war with China and the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the United States of America (U.S) faces the continuous problem of resource dependence and resource insecurity of its processed Rare Earth mineral supply chain. The latter problem arises for three reasons: First, is the import reliance on Chinese processed Rare Earth supply to the United States. Second, is the negligence of the U.S in developing its own mining sector. Third, is the disconnect between mineral strategy and policy. The aim of this brief to shed an understanding on the current U.S capacity to refine Rare Earths, and to …

Harnessing Heat: How the Federal Government Can Advance Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy has yet to follow the trajectory of rapidly expanding, cheap renewables like wind and solar. To unlock the enormous potential of this clean, reliable source of energy, the federal government can drive innovation and address barriers to adoption.…

Oil Market Black Swans: Covid-19, the Market-Share War, and Long-Term Risks of Oil Volatility

The shock oil markets have suffered from the coronavirus and the ensuing market-share war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has sent prices plummeting to levels not seen since 2002 and altered the outlook for supply and demand for the immediate future. The impact of both events on energy producers and consumers will not fade when the pandemic ends, however. Looking longer term, the world will either have to accept the need for swing producers—those capable of adjusting oil output to attempt to prevent large demand and supply shocks—or brace for perpetual, extreme oil price volatility that will severely destabilize the …