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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The U.S. electricity sector is in the midst of a major change. As power producers retire aging coal plants, they are turning to natural gas to generate electricity at an unprecedented rate.
While this rapid shift is providing important near-term environmental and economic benefits, strong evidence suggests that becoming too reliant on natural gas poses numerous and complex risks, including persistent price volatility and rising global warming emissions.
Analysis shows, however, that the dangers of an overreliance on natural gas can be overcome by greatly expanding the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in our power supply. These technologies …
View Full ResourceBy the end of 2013, 144 countries—both developed and developing—had established plans for the expansion of power generation from renewable energy (REN 21). In setting these goals, countries are driven by a number of strategic considerations, including energy security, reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, the need to expand and improve energy services for growing populations, and industrialization and job creation.
Among renewable energy sources, solar and wind resources stand out as having high inherent resource variability and limited predictability. For this reason, solar and wind generation technologies are often referred to as Variable Renewable Energy (VRE). Ten years ago, …
View Full ResourceOver the past decade, natural gas production in the United States has undergone a revolution. The combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technology has allowed economic access to enormous quantities of natural gas from shale formations. As a result, in 2013, the United States became the world’s largest producer of hydrocarbons.2 This development has had and will likely continue to have significant consequences for the broader economy. The impact of abundant, low-cost natural gas is particularly important in the electric power sector. During the month of April 2012, electricity generation from natural gas-fired plants virtually matched generation from coal-fired …
View Full ResourceThe case for taking action on climate change has never been clearer: as the third National Climate Assessment states, the U.S. is already experiencing the effects of climate change, from increasing heat across the country to more extreme weather events totaling billions of dollars in damage. Given these impacts, and much worse to come, the cost of inaction to our health, environment, and economy is far too great, especially when effective and lowcost means for reducing climate-warming pollution are available now. In this report, we show how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can fulfill the agency’s duty under the …
View Full ResourceClimate change poses a real and present danger to people in countries all over the world. Scientists agree that we need to move swiftly and aggressively to decarbonize the global economy—that is, to reduce the amount of carbon released per unit of gross domestic product—by deploying clean energy technologies and making energy systems more efficient.
In the United States, electric utilities are the largest source of carbon pollution. Therefore, the reduction of power-sector emissions needs to be a central component of any meaningful climate mitigation strategy. In June, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, released a landmark proposal to establish …
View Full ResourceThe report provides advice on how the oil and natural gas industry and government can better prepare for and respond to significant disruptions to oil and natural gas supply chains caused by natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, etc. Although this study focuses on emergency scenarios caused by natural disasters, the outcomes from this study will be useful to DOE and industry in responding to impacts from a much broader range of potential incidents and vulnerabilities that result in energy disruptions.
The recommendations identify mechanisms for the U.S. government and industry to improve communication and coordination in responding to …
View Full ResourceRecent advances in combining two drilling techniques, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, have allowed access to large deposits of shale resources—that is, crude oil and natural gas trapped in shale and certain other dense rock formations. As a result, the cost of that “tight oil” and “shale gas” has become competitive with the cost of oil and gas extracted from other sources. Virtually nonexistent a decade ago, the development of shale resources has boomed in the United States, producing about 3.5 million barrels of tight oil per day and about 9.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of shale gas per year. …
View Full ResourceMethane, the primary component of natural gas, is a potent climate pollutant up to 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide on a 20-year timeframe. Currently the United States loses at least 1 to 3 percent of its total natural gas production each year when methane is leaked or vented to the atmosphere. Federal regulations could reduce methane emissions by up to 50 percent at little or no net cost, using available technologies.
This policy brief provides an overview of the science of methane, oil and gas sector methane emissions, the history of federal action, available methane emission reduction opportunities, …
View Full ResourceThe increase in domestic supplies of natural gas has raised new interest in expanding its use in the transportation sector. This report considers issues related to wider use of natural gas as a fuel in passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
The attractiveness of natural gas as a vehicle fuel is premised in large part on its low price (on an energy-equivalent basis) compared to gasoline and diesel fuel. When prices for gasoline and diesel are relatively low or natural gas prices are relatively high, natural-gas-based fuels lose much of their price advantage. While natural gas has other benefits—such as producing …
View Full ResourceEmissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with oil and natural gas production in the Uintah Basin, Utah were measured at a ground site in Horse Pool and from a NOAA mobile laboratory with PTR-MS instruments. The VOC compositions in the vicinity of individual gas and oil wells and other point sources such as evaporation ponds, compressor stations and injection wells are compared to the measurements at Horse Pool.…
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