New research examines the relationship between climate change-related events and returns on green investment, and why returns for green stocks might lag those of brown.
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At first look it would seem to make sense that, as climate concerns grow, green investments would outperform investments in dirty industries. To put this into an energy context, as policymakers require more renewable energy to be deployed, and as investors flock to companies with low climate impacts and risks, the value of those companies would substantially increase, rewarding investors through higher returns.
Yet recent research suggests that this assumption may not be true. Or, at least, that the story isn’t as clear cut as one might intuitively expect.
Luke Taylor, a professor of finance at the Wharton School, explores the drivers of green returns. In new research, Taylor and coauthors look at the past decade of returns on ESG portfolios, and at how environmental policies, and investor demand for all things green, combined to influence returns on green stocks.
Luke Taylor is a professor of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His recent research paper is “Dissecting Green Returns.”
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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New research looks into the coping mechanisms that families use to navigate energy insecurity, as a guide for policy-based solutions.
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The number of American households experiencing energy insecurity spiked during the COVID pandemic in 2020, as growing unemployment and falling incomes made it difficult for more households to balance utility bills with other financial demands. Yet the rising incidence of energy insecurity, and the often short-term focus of assistance to keep families financially afloat, belies the reality that energy insecurity is often a chronic challenge that predates acute financial crises, and persists long after.
Sanya Carley, director of the Energy Justice Lab at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, discusses the nature of household energy insecurity, and novel research into the coping mechanisms that families experiencing energy insecurity use to juggle often competing needs of energy, food, and healthcare. Carley also talks about existing public policy measures to address energy insecurity, and the need for new types of data to underpin effective policy action.
Sanya Carley is director of the Energy Justice Lab at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Barriers to Energy Efficiency Adoption in Low-Income Communities https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/barriers-to-energy-efficiency-adoption-in-low-income-communities/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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A working paper from WRI, the International Solar Alliance and Bloomberg Philanthropies examines the essential role of private finance in scaling solar power development.
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A recent working paper from the World Resources Institute, the International Solar Alliance and Bloomberg Philanthropies finds that $1 trillion must be invested into solar energy by 2030 if global warming is to be kept within the limits of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Yet global investment in solar today is just half of what will be required. Massive amounts of financial capital, much of it private, must be available to ramp up solar development, particularly in developing regions of the globe where political and economic risks may otherwise present barriers to investment.
Laura Van Wie McGrory, WRI’s Global Engagement Lead for Scaling Up Solar and a co-author of “Our Solar Future: Roadmap to Mobilize USD 1 Trillion by 2030,” explores strategies to de-risk solar investment and scale private capital toward the $1 trillion goal.
Laura Van Wie McGrory is Global Engagement Lead for the World Resources Institute’s Scaling Up Solar initiative, where she coordinates efforts to mobilize investment for global solar power.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Judy Chang, former Massachusetts undersecretary of Energy and Climate Solutions, discusses the need to educate consumers on the imperative to cut building emissions.
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Residential and commercial buildings account for nearly a third of climate warming greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Yet efforts to reduce the climate footprint of buildings have become political lightning rods. Local regulations requiring new homes to be fully electrified often encounter fierce pushback, while at least 20 states have moved to outlaw local bans on natural gas connections in new homes. Politics aside, business and home owners may have little awareness of their building’s climate footprint, and often lack the time and motivation to explore alternatives like electric space and water heating.
Judy Chang, former Massachusetts undersecretary of Energy and Climate Solutions, discusses the political, economic hurdles to cutting the climate impact of buildings. She also examines the role that consumers will play in efforts to decarbonize, and the need to educate consumers on the imperative to cut building emissions.
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Net-Zero Nevada: From Pledge to Action https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/net-zero-nevada-from-pledge-to-action/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Daniel Poneman, former U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary and current CEO of Centrus Energy, explores resurgent interest in nuclear power a decade after Fukushima.
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Growing concern over energy security and climate change has revived interest in nuclear power in some of the world’s most energy-intensive economies. In Japan, nuclear generators that closed following the 2011 Fukushima disaster are reopening, while Germany has extended the operating life of the country’s remaining nuclear facilities. And in the United States recent legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act, earmarks billions of dollars to support economically struggling nuclear power plants and the development of next-generation nuclear technology.
Yet the future of nuclear energy remains far from certain as challenges around cost, complexity, and spent fuel disposal persist.
Daniel Poneman, chief executive of nuclear fuel supplier Centrus Energy and former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, discusses the political and market dynamics underpinning the nuclear industry’s resurgence in developed economies. He also examines the potential for small modular reactor technology to deliver economic, and carbon free, electricity in the future.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Scott Moore, author of China’s Next Act, discusses China’s global role in energy technology and sustainability.
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China is indispensable in the global effort to address climate change and speed forward the transition to clean energy. Yet the country, which leads the world in both energy consumption and the manufacture of clean energy technologies, finds itself engaged in increasingly tense diplomatic and economic relations with the world’s developed economies, its key partners in addressing shared global challenges.
The degree to which these tensions frame China’s relationship with much of the world, and the degree to which China acts as a collaborative, or a competitive force in addressing global challenges, has implications for the global energy system and quality of our environment.
Scott Moore, Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China’s Rise and the World’s Future, explores how China’s state-directed economic system, and the country’s economic ambitions, influence global efforts to advance energy technology and the energy transition.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Berkeley economist Meredith Fowlie explains why the drive to electrify everything in American homes is at odds with electricity rate setting practices, and explores pricing reforms to deliver rapid and equitable electrification.
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“Electrify everything” has become a mantra of decarbonization, and it’s one of the key strategies to reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Yet the process of electrifying everything from home heating to transportation creates challenges for the electricity system, which will need to grow to accommodate renewable energy and rising demand for power.
This raises a fundamental question: How can society make costly investments to grow the supply of power, while keeping the cost of electricity low enough that electrifying everything remains an attractive proposition for all consumers?
Meredith Fowlie, an energy and environmental economist at the University of California, Berkeley, explains why existing frameworks for setting consumer electricity prices can be at odds with the need to rapidly decarbonize. She also explores potential solutions to ensure that electrification happens rapidly, with costs and benefits that are equitably shared among households at all income levels.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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As energy industry growth shifts to the clean sector, oil and gas industry workers seek their paths forward.
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The past three years have been a particularly volatile period for the oil and gas industry. The sector has been impacted by the Covid pandemic, during which energy demand crashed and the price of oil contracts briefly went negative. More recently, oil and gas prices reached peaks in response to the war in Ukraine and the tightening of energy supply.
In addition to this volatility, growing pressure to reduce dependence on fossil fuels raises the prospect that the industry will face not only customary market uncertainty going forward, but also eventual structural decline for its fossil-based products.
Katie Mehnert, an ambassador with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Equity in Energy Initiative, takes a look at the challenges that an evolving energy market landscape and anxiety over the future role of the oil and gas industry bring to the industry’s workers and their communities. Mehnert, who is CEO of Ally Energy, a Houston company that seeks to increase equality in the energy industry, also discusses efforts to promote diversity through the energy transition.
Katie Mehnert is CEO of Ally Energy, an ambassador with the Department of Energy’s Equity in Energy Initiative, and a member of the National Petroleum Council. She formerly held senior management positions with BP and Shell in Houston, Texas.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Andrew Hoffman, dean of Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, explores the intersection of climate change, agricultural sustainability, and food security.
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Experts from the University of Pennsylvania are on the ground at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In this special series from Energy Policy Now, they share their observations from the global climate conference and insights into key issues under negotiation.
Andrew Hoffman, dean of Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, discusses COP27’s focus on the global food system, and the pressures that climate change is placing on food production. He also highlights research at the School of Veterinary Medicine into the intersection of sustainable agriculture and food security.
Andrew Hoffman is dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
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COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt has been called the “implementation COP”. Yet concern exists that the COP process may be ill suited to putting climate plans into action.
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Experts from the University of Pennsylvania are on the ground at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In this special series from Energy Policy Now, they share their observations from the global climate conference and insights into key issues under negotiation.
Koko Warner, manager of the UNFCCC’s Vulnerability subdivision, explains why COP27 in Egypt has been declared the “implementation COP.” She also examines why implementation – the process of putting into practice the mitigation and adaptation plans developed during past global climate meetings – presents a challenge for the COP framework.
Koko Warner is a visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. She is the manager of the UNFCCC’s Vulnerability subdivision, and is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth and Sixth Assessment reports.
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Food waste is a major driver of climate change, and a cause of food insecurity. UPenn’s Steven Finn highlights the challenge and solutions discussed at COP27.
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Experts from the University of Pennsylvania are on the ground at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In this special series from Energy Policy Now, they share observations from the global climate conference and insights into key issues under negotiation.
Steven Finn, affiliated faculty in Penn’s Organizational Dynamics program, discusses the role that food waste plays in driving climate change, and in contributing to the global challenge of food insecurity. Steve also examines the growing focus on food security within the COP framework, and innovations that seek to reduce the food system’s environmental impact while meeting the demands of a growing global population.
Steven Finn is affiliated faculty in the Organizational Dynamics program at the University of Pennsylvania, and Vice President of Food Waste Prevention at Leanpath.
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
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Scott Moore, Director of the Penn Global China Program, discusses China’s perspective on loss and damage finance, and the country’s future role in the Paris climate process.
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Experts from the University of Pennsylvania are on the ground at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In this special series from Energy Policy Now, they share observations from the global climate conference and insights into key issues under negotiation.
Scott Moore, Director of the Penn Global China Program, discusses China’s role in global climate negotiations in an era of tense U.S.-China relations. Scott explores China’s role in getting loss and damage finance included in this year’s COP agenda, and the tensions created by China’s position as both a developing country and major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Scott Moore is Director of the Penn Global China Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Scott’s work focuses on China, climate change, and international relations. He is the author of the recently published book, China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China’s Rise and the World’s Future.
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Three experts on cities discuss the efforts of urban communities to navigate climate change.
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Experts from the University of Pennsylvania are on the ground at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In this special series from Energy Policy Now, they share their observations from the global climate conference and insights into key issues under negotiation.
Eugenie Birch, Bill Burke-White, and Mauricio Rodas of the University of Pennsylvania explore the challenges that climate change, and effects ranging from extreme heat to flooding, present to cities in an era of rapid urbanization. They also discuss how cities are acting in concert to address climate impacts.
Eugenie Birch is the Lawrence C. Nussdorf Chair of Urban Research and Education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. Her recent work focuses on global urbanization.
Bill Burke-White is a Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and an expert on U.S. foreign policy, multilateral institutions, and international law.
Mauricio Rodas is a Visiting Fellow with the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. From 2014 to 2019 he was the mayor of Quito, Ecuador.
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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New research explores ways to measure countries' success in adapting to climate change.
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Experts from the University of Pennsylvania are on the ground at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In this special series from Energy Policy Now, they share their observations from the global climate conference and insights into key issues under negotiation.
Allison Lassiter of the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design discusses the role of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in the Paris Climate process, and research that seeks to measure the success of national efforts to address climate risk.
Allison Lassiter is an assistant professor in city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. Her research focuses on adapting water systems to climate change and measuring the impacts of sustainability policies.
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Loss and damage finance has made it onto the official COP agenda for the first time at Sharm El-Sheikh. An expert on small island states discusses why the issue has been so contentious.
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Experts from the University of Pennsylvania are on the ground at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In this special series from Energy Policy Now, they share their observations from the global climate conference and insights into key issues under negotiation.
Stacy-ann Robinson, a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, provides a brief history of loss and damage finance in global climate negotiations, and why the issue has taken so long to become an official part of the COP negotiating agenda.
Stacy-ann Robinson is a Lightning Scholar with the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. Her research focuses on the human, social, and policy dimensions of climate change adaptation in Small Island Developing States. Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.ed
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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New research from Resources for the Future quantifies the Inflation Reduction Act's expected impact on clean energy development, energy costs, and emissions.
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The Inflation Reduction Act provides hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of incentives for clean energy, and is a key part of the U.S.’s effort to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. New research from Resources for the Future examines the extent to which the IRA may in fact incentivize the development of wind and solar power, and contribute to the Biden Administration’s goal of achieving 80% clean energy by the end of this decade.
Dallas Burtraw, a senior fellow with Resources for the Future, discusses the IRA’s potential to accelerate clean energy development, and its financial costs, or benefits, to consumers. Burtraw also explores the new law’s expected environmental and health impacts, and potential barriers that may limit the IRA’s ability to realize the full scope of expected benefits.
Dallas Burtraw is a Darius Gaskins senior fellow at Resources for the Future
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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West Virginia’s coal industry has out-sized influence in the state’s politics, and in Washington. But the industry’s power has come at a cost to West Virginians.
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The state of West Virginia has made headlines over the past year on the high profile of its senior senator, Joe Manchin, who has been the swing vote in the Senate on major energy legislation. Most dramatically, Manchin’s last-minute deal with Senate Democratic leadership in July allowed for the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act that provides billions of dollars in tax incentives for wind and solar power. Yet in negotiations Manchin blocked provisions that are central President Biden’s clean energy and climate agenda, while gaining concessions to the fossil fuel industry that holds so much political sway in his home state.
James Van Nostrand, author of Coal Trap: How West Virginia Was Left Behind in the Clean Energy Revolution, examines how the coal industry succeeded in shaping West Virginia politics and, by extension, came to influence national energy policy. Van Nostrand, a professor of law at West Virginia University, also examines how coal’s political influence has left West Virginia ill prepared to benefit economically from clean energy as the market for coal declines.
James Van Nostrand is Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at West Virginia University College of Law.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Green hydrogen hubs are being developed in some of the world’s most remote locations, to serve growing clean energy demand in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
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Alicia Eastman, President of Intercontinental Energy, discusses the nascent global market for green hydrogen and her company’s development of more than 100 gigawatts of hydrogen production hubs along coastal deserts in the Arabian Peninsula and Australia. Eastman explores the economic and policy factors, including the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., that are driving the market for green hydrogen, which has the potential to serve as a substitute for fossil fuels in hard-to-decarbonize industries including steel and cement production, aviation and shipping. She also talks about the challenges that the development of green hydrogen infrastructure can present to local communities, and efforts to include these communities in project governance.
Alicia Eastman is President of Intercontinental Energy. She is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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A former senior U.S. diplomat to Saudi Arabia explores the kingdom’s effort to end its dependence on oil revenue, and the relationship between Saudi Arabia and global efforts to decarbonize.
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Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading exporter of oil. Yet it is also a country that is in the midst of an ambitious drive to end its dependence on oil revenue as the foundation of its national economy. Saudi Arabia’s effort to economically diversify follows a decade of oil market volatility that has added to a host of economic and political challenges faced by the ruling Al Saud family. Looking ahead, the global effort to move away from fossil fuels, and address climate change, could make Saudi Arabia’s overreliance on oil ever more risky.
David Rundell, former Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia and author Vision and Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads, explores the kingdom’s efforts to diversify away from oil. Rundell also discusses Saudi Arabia’s perspective on the global effort to decarbonize, and America’s tense relationship with its longtime energy ally.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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A prominent advocate for indigenous rights in Canada sees promise in clean energy.
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The Canadian province of Alberta is home to the Oil Sands, a vast subarctic region that is rich in crude oil, and which has been a focus of controversy for decades over the environmental and climate impacts of the fossil fuel mining that takes place there.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a prominent indigenous rights advocate and member of the Lubicon Cree Nation, discusses her community’s ongoing struggle to overcome the impact of environmental, health and cultural damage from surrounding Oil Sands development, and the potential for clean energy to empower First Nation communities.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo has for more than a decade been an activist on behalf of indigenous communities that have been impacted by the development of fossil fuels. Her television program, Power to the People, explores the role that clean energy is playing in building energy independence among First Nation communities. Melina is the co-founder of Indigenous Climate Action, a Climate Fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation, and the founder of Sacred Earth Solar.
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https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/events/renewable-energy-and-indigenous-communities/
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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The United States’ electricity regulator has proposed two major electricity market reforms that could speed the pace of renewable energy development.
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In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of proposed clean energy projects in the United States. In fact, the amount of clean energy that’s waiting in line to connect to the nation’s electric grid is greater than the total installed generating capacity on the grid today.
The prospect of so much clean energy in waiting is a bright spot in the larger effort to decarbonize and address climate change. Yet proposed clean energy, and actual clean energy, are two very different things, and the fact is that a number of policy barriers stand in the way of turning so many clean energy proposals into reality.
Shelley Welton, a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy with the Kleinman Center, discusses proposed policy reforms from the nation’s electricity regulator, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, that aim to remove these barriers to the greening of the electric grid. Welton looks at rules that seek to speed the process for connecting clean energy to the grid, and ensure that the grid is ready to handle all that new clean power. She also discusses the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that narrows the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and implications the ruling might have for the FERC’s ability to regulate on issues relating to climate change.
Shelley Welton is a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy with the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and the Penn Carey Law School.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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The fossil fuel industry is investing billions of dollars into projects that will use carbon dioxide captured from the air to produce more oil. What will be the climate impact?
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In April the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identified carbon dioxide removal as an essential tool in the global effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions. One technology-based type of carbon dioxide removal known as direct air capture (DAC) has the potential to reduce net carbon dioxide emission by billions of tons per year. Yet DAC’s high cost raises concern around if and when the technology might be scaled to meaningfully address climate change.
Recently, the fossil fuel industry has committed more than $1 billion to support controversial projects that will use captured CO2 to increase production from oil wells, through a process known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Pete Psarras, a research assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, dives into the controversy over the use of captured CO2 as a tool for low-carbon oil production. He discusses research that examines whether the combination of DAC + EOR might lead to net climate benefits or damages, and explores frameworks for effective governance of the technology.
Pete Psarras is a research assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on carbon dioxide removal and carbon capture.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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An expert in international trade policy discusses the Biden Administration’s use of the Defense Production Act, and tariff restrictions, to build a competitive US solar supply chain.
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In early June the Biden Administration invoked the Defense Production Act in an effort to rebuild America’s domestic solar energy manufacturing supply. Simultaneously, the Administration announced that it will prohibit for two years new tariffs on imports of solar cells from four Southeast Asian countries that are under investigation for illegal trade practices involving their solar industries. Through these complementary policies, the Administration aims to accelerate solar power development in the US in the near term, and ultimately to displace solar imports and strengthen US energy security. The policies are controversial, and have implications for domestic industry and the pace of decarbonization, and the rule of law.
Robert Scott, Senior Economist and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute, offers a closer look at the Defense Production Act and its potential to spur the development of a robust solar supply chain in the US. Scott examines the policies and trade dynamics that led to China’s dominance in the global solar supply chain, and how the DPA and related trade and industrial policies might create the foundation for a competitive domestic solar manufacturing industry.
Robert Scott is Senior Economist and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Advanced Energy Economy’s Leah Rubin Shen discusses energy spending priorities in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
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In November President Biden signed into law the signature legislation of his Presidency to date, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bill includes more than $100 billion dollars in funding for clean energy technology, infrastructure and climate preparedness, making it the most significant federal commitment to clean energy and climate to date.
Leah Rubin Shen, a policy director with Advanced Energy Economy, discusses spending priorities for energy-focused dollars in the infrastructure bill. Leah also explores the limitations of infrastructure bill funding, and state and federal spending priorities that AEE is advocating for. Advanced Energy Economy is a national business association that advocates for clean energy and transportation on behalf of U.S. technology and clean energy companies.
Leah Rubin Shen is a policy director with Advanced Energy Economy.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Two experts on mining industry governance explore environmental and social challenges around the mining of cobalt, a critical material in EV batteries, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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This is the third episode in our series that explores governance challenges surrounding the transition to clean energy.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that electric vehicles could account for a third of the global new car market by the end of this decade. While the prospect of a growing fleet of EVs is good news for the climate, the emergence of electric vehicles raises its own set of sustainability challenges. One area of notable concern surrounds the raw materials that are used in EV batteries, which may be sourced from regions of the world where environmental and social governance are weak. This reality runs counter to the sustainable promise of the clean energy transition and has raised concern among clean technology companies, EV manufacturers, and ESG-minded investors.
David Manley and Hervé Lado of the Natural Resource Governance Institute explore the environmental and human realities surrounding the production of one such material, cobalt, which is an essential element in the lithium-ion batteries that power most electric vehicles. The majority of cobalt is produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an impoverished and environmentally sensitive country that has attracted attention as demand for cobalt has grown. Manley and Lado discuss efforts to improve oversight of the cobalt value chain, and what’s potentially at stake for the clean energy transition, and economies that are dependent on raw materials production, should ESG concerns not be adequately addressed.
David Manley is a senior economic analyst with the Natural Resource Governance Institute. Hervé Lado is NRGI’s West and Central Africa regional manager.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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As net zero carbon targets become commonplace, strong governance will be needed to ensure climate benefits.
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This is the second episode in a three-part series exploring governance challenges surrounding the transition to clean energy.
In recent years a flood of net zero emissions targets have been set by companies, municipalities, and countries around the world. In fact, over-two thirds of the global economy is now covered by net zero targets that aim to zero out greenhouse gas emissions and slow and ideally halt the process of climate change.
Yet, while the quantity of net zero targets has multiplied, the quality of many of these targets is questionable. Many targets are voluntary and, too frequently, not subject to reliable oversight. At the same time, political realities can present steep hurdles to governments that might seek to establish robust, enforceable net zero targets at the national level.
Thomas Hale, associate professor in global public policy at the University of Oxford discusses the need for strong governance structures to ensure that net zero targets deliver the carbon neutrality that they promise. Hale explores what, exactly, constitutes a robust net zero target, governance frameworks for credible and enforceable targets and the hurdles, political and otherwise, to achieving robust governance.
Thomas Hale is an associate professor in global public policy at the University of Oxford and visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. His work focuses on the management of transnational problems, with a focus on environmental, economic and health issues.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Shuchi Talati, former chief of staff of the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management, discusses the need for strong governance to balance the potential benefits of carbon dioxide removal technologies with environmental and social risks.
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This episode is the first in a three-part series that will explore governance challenges surrounding the transition to clean energy.
In early April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest assessment report, which warned that the global carbon budget to keep climate warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius is quickly being exhausted, and that the use of technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has become “unavoidable” if climate damages are to be limited.
The report has been followed by announcements from leading technology companies of more than $2 billion dollars in commitments to commercialize carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. The IPCC report, and financing commitments, point to increasing acceptance of emerging climate technologies that were once viewed as options of last resort to address climate change.
In the podcast Shuchi Talati, scholar in residence with the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment at American University, discusses the governance of these emerging climate technologies which, despite their promise, raise concerns around their potential impacts on ecosystems, economies and issues of social equity, and even over the pace of decarbonization itself.
Shuchi Talati is scholar in residence with the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment at American University, and former chief of staff for the Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management at the Department of Energy.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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Economist Lord Nicholas Stern discusses why traditional economics fail to capture the magnitude of threat presented by climate change, and how the discipline must adapt.
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In 2006 climate economist Nicholas Stern published the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, a report that offered the first systematic examination of the costs of addressing climate change and impacts on the global economy. The report marked a fundamental shift away from climate change being viewed primarily as an issue of science, to also being one of economics.
Fifteen years later Stern looks back on that seminal report to examine how economics, and markets, have failed to grapple with the unprecedented risks posed by a changing climate, and how the profession must change to guide policy toward rapid decarbonization on a global scale. Stern’s recording took place during his visit to the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy on April 19, where he received the center’s Carnot Prize for distinguished contributions to energy policy.
Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
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The Role of Negative Emissions in Getting to Carbon Neutral https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-essential-role-of-negative-emissions-in-getting-to-carbon-neutral/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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An expert in energy geopolitics discusses the war in Ukraine and its implications for European energy security and decarbonization. The episode was recorded in front of a live audience.
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Anna Mikulska, lecturer in Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in European energy geopolitics, discusses the history of escalating energy tensions between Russia, Ukraine and the EU prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. In the episode, which was recorded in front of a live audience at UPenn’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Mikulska explores the EU’s dependency on Russian natural gas and options for alternative sources of energy supply including LNG. She also considers the prospects for an extended period of high energy prices going forward, and how the war may alter Europe’s path toward its aggressive decarbonization targets for the end of this decade.
Anna Mikulska is a lecturer in Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and a nonresident fellow in Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute.
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Barriers to Energy Efficiency Adoption in Low-Income Communities https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/barriers-to-energy-efficiency-adoption-in-low-income-communities/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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An energy activist highlights the opportunities, and challenges on the way to clean and equitable energy in the United States.
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The energy transition that is now underway in the United States holds the promise of delivering carbon free energy by the middle of this century. Yet often overlooked is a second critical opportunity to ensure that our future energy system delivers benefits, and shares burdens, much more equitably than has been true to date.
Chandra Farley, chair of the Atlanta NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Committee, discusses the disproportionate environmental, social and economic burdens of our fossil energy system that have fallen on communities of color and the economically disadvantaged, and efforts to ensure that the benefits and costs of clean energy are equitably shared.
Chandra Farley is Chief Executive of ReSolve, a consultancy that works to strengthen the organizational foundations of grassroots advocacy, and founder of the Good Energy Project, which engages Black women in the effort to expand clean energy. She is running for a seat as a commissioner with the Georgia Public Service Commission.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
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The transition to a clean energy economy will generate millions of new jobs. Unions are working to ensure that those jobs provide a living wage.
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Dramatic changes are underway in the ways that the United States produces and consumes energy, with major implications for the country’s workforce. Along the Atlantic shore, states are racing to establish large offshore wind farms and the manufacturing supply chains to support them. Automakers in the middle of the country have committed to shifting production to electric vehicles and the federal government to supporting a nationwide EV charging network.
Opportunity will continue to grow in clean energy manufacturing, infrastructure and services. A central challenge that lies ahead is to ensure that these new jobs provide secure, living wages to support families and communities as they propel the energy transition.
Guest Lara Skinner is Director of the Labor Leading on Climate Initiative at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, which works with labor unions to actively engage in decision making around clean energy and climate policy. She discusses efforts to ensure that new jobs in the clean energy economy address both economic inequality and the need to rapidly decarbonize.
Lara Skinner is Director of the Labor Leading on Climate Initiative at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
For a transcript of this episode and more information, go to our website.
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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
ProPublica's Alec MacGillis discusses his recent New Yorker magazine article on Germany’s protracted struggle to wean itself off of coal.
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Germany has earned a reputation as a leader in the effort to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and today counts some of the highest rates of renewable energy in the world.
Yet one of the continuing ironies of Germany’s energy transition is that the country remains very much dependent on coal-fired generation, which last year provided over a quarter of its electricity. In fact, as Germany pursues steep reductions in emissions, it also plans to continue mining and burning coal nearly to the end of the 2030s.
ProPublica reporter Alec MacGillis discusses his recent New Yorker magazine article on Germany’s challenging exit from coal, and the fuel’s sustaining, and uniquely destructive relationship with German communities.
MacGillis’ article, “Can Germany Show Us How to Leave Coal Behind?”, was published in the January 31, 2022 issue of The New Yorker, and on ProPublica.org.
Alec MacGillis is a reporter with ProPublica.
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Rising global LNG demand points to a strong future for U.S. LNG exports. But ESG concerns loom.
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Over the past decade, fracking technology has driven unprecedented growth in American natural gas production. Gas now powers 40% of U.S. electricity generation, and is also the most important fuel for home heating. And the U.S. is on track to become the world’s number one exporter of liquified natural gas in 2022, as Asia and Europe compete to pay top dollar for shipments of LNG.
On the face of things, the outlook couldn’t be better for U.S. gas producers. Yet, the industry’s dramatic growth coincides with an accelerating shift toward clean energy technology, growing investor ESG concerns around the use of natural gas, and political division over gas exports. Gas producers must now weigh near term market opportunity against these longer term risks.
Robert Johnston, managing director of Eurasia Group’s Energy, Climate and Resources practice, and a research scholar at Columbia University’s Center for Global Energy Policy, discusses the complex range of domestic and global dynamics that are shaping the future of the U.S. natural gas industry.
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A financier discusses the challenge of managing clean energy investment risk.
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The transition to a clean U.S. energy system, including carbon-free electricity by the middle of the next decade, will be fueled by massive investment from government and industry and through the provision of green finance from banks and investors.
Brian Lehman, the Head of Green Economy Banking at JP Morgan Chase, discusses the challenge of defining clean and sustainable investment in an age where uniform sustainability standards don’t yet exist. He also looks at how government policy might accelerate clean energy finance, and at the types of energy projects and technologies that are attracting attention from green financiers.
The Carbon Shock: Investor Response to the British Columbia Carbon Tax
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Climate Tech for Real Estate: The Elephant in the Room. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/climate-tech-for-real-estate-the-elephant-in-the-room/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A climate economist discusses why efforts to cool earth’s climate through solar geoengineering appear all but inevitable, and considers the policy questions and political battles to come.
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There is no overarching, national debate into the merits of solar geoengineering, which is process to artificially cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight back into space. The technology sounds fanciful, the stuff of science fiction. Yet earlier this year the National Academies of Sciences issued an urgent request to Washington to begin a federal research program into geoengineering. That request has, so far, largely fallen on deaf ears.
Climate economist Gernot Wagner believes solar geoengineering is inevitable despite the relative lack of attention the technology has attracted to date. In a recently published book he makes the case for this inevitability, and also presents a compelling argument for why much more research into geoengineering’s risks must be completed if is to be put into practice. In the podcast, he explores why solar geoengineering is fundamentally different from other strategies that address climate change, and why research programs into the technology must be tightly governed. He also discusses concern that solar geoengineering’s implementation, if inevitable, is likely to stoke fierce policy debate and, quite possibly, geopolitical tensions.
Gernot Wagner is a climate economist at New York University and author of the recently published book Geoengineering: the Gamble. He is also co-author of Climate Shock, which was chosen by the Financial Times as a best book in economics in 2015.
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Who will pay for the electric grid of the future? The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission explores options to incentivize and finance a vast transmission network to support clean energy.
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Much of the fossil fuel generation fleet in the United States will be replaced by renewable energy resources as the country’s electricity system is decarbonized. Yet it remains unclear how the vast network of high-voltage transmission lines needed to connect clean energy resources will be planned and paid for.
Marc Montalvo, president and CEO of Daymark Energy Advisors and former director of risk management and market development at ISO New England, looks at why existing means of planning electric transmission are not up to the task of delivering a low-carbon grid. He also discusses recent action by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the nation’s electric grid regulator, to explore ways to incentivize the construction of new transmission and support the expansion of renewable energy.
Marc Montalvo is president and CEO of Daymark Energy Advisors. Marc has 25 years of market and regulatory experience in the electricity industry, including in senior roles at ISO New England.
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China’s leadership must navigate conflicting agendas, and threats to domestic political stability, as it seeks to rein in global warming emissions.
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China has adopted a relatively low profile of late when it comes to addressing climate change. At the COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the most notable headline concerning China may in fact have been the failure of its President, Chi Jinping, to attend or address the conference directly. The Chinese leader’s absence was remarkable given the country’s position as the top global emitter of greenhouse gasses, and also in light of the leadership role that China has taken at other global climate conferences over the past few years.
Scott Moore, Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, looks at factors that have contributed to China’s recent avoidance of the climate spotlight, including an ongoing energy crisis that threatens the nation’s economic growth. More broadly, he discusses the political vulnerabilities that the pursuit of a low carbon energy system presents for China’s governing powers, and how these considerations may shape the country’s future climate action, and the pace of its energy transition.
Scott Moore is a political scientist and Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.
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An unprecedented backlog of clean energy projects is in line to join PJM Interconnection, an electricity market serving one in five Americans.
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PJM Interconnection, the largest wholesale electricity market in the U.S., is on the verge of going solar in a big way. The market, which encompasses 13 states from the mid-Atlantic shore, through fossil fuel-rich Pennsylvania and Ohio and as far West as Illinois, has a massive backlog of clean energy projects of all types that are waiting to be built, with solar foremost among them. In fact, the amount of clean energy in line to join PJM totals more than all of the generation capacity that exists in the market today.
Mike Borgatti, Vice President of RTO Services and Regulatory Affairs at Gabel Associates, discusses the unprecedented number of new clean energy projects that are lined up in PJM’s interconnection queue, and the policy and economic factors that are driving the shift to solar, wind and storage. He also takes a look at the decline in the number of natural gas projects waiting to enter the market, and what all of these developments may mean for the future power mix.
Mike Borgatti is Vice President of RTO Services and Regulatory Affairs at Gabel Associates, an energy, environmental and public utility consulting company.
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A climate economist looks at the impact that the stranding of fossil fuel assets may have on communities, and at policies that might mitigate economic hardship.
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As pressure builds to decarbonize the global energy system, much of today’s energy infrastructure is becoming obsolete. Over the past decade more than half of the coal fired power plants in the United States have closed as coal generation has been replaced by natural gas and renewables, while coal plants elsewhere, such as in China, increasingly operate at a financial loss.
The value of certain fossil energy reserves has fallen too. The stock market decline of major energy companies such as ExxonMobil, once the most valuable company in the world, has come as expectations for future oil demand have fallen, making these companies’ vast underground oil reserves look less valuable today. And the natural gas industry faces an uncertain future as the role that gas can, and should play in tomorrow’s clean system is debated.
What all of this means is that some portion of fossil fuel companies’ investments in reserves and infrastructure will lose its value, and become what economists call stranded assets. The prospect of stranded energy assets raises concern among investors, and policymakers who must juggle near term economic interests with essential climate goals.
University of Southern California economist Matthew Kahn discusses the growing concern over stranded energy assets, and looks at some of the people and places that may suffer when the value of assets drops. He also explores policy solutions to address the problem of stranded assets while taking vulnerable communities into account.
Matthew Kahn is the Provost Professor of Economics and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California.
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Hurricane Ida was the most recent storm to wreak havoc on Louisiana’s electric grid. A legal expert discusses the struggle to provide resilient power in the state as weather and climate risks grow.
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The year 2021 has seen an unprecedented number of large-scale electric grid failures driven by extreme weather. Over the winter, severe cold led to the collapse of Texas’ electricity system, while in California an aging electric grid has sparked wildfires in a state that has endured two decades of drought. Most recently, Hurricanes Ida and Nicholas knocked out electric lines along the Gulf Coast, leaving tens of thousands of residents without power, many for weeks.
What all of these electricity system failures have in common, apart from the lives that they have cost, is that they are likely to be repeated unless the electric grid can be made more resilient.
Robert Verchick, a professor of environmental law at Loyola University in New Orleans, discusses the challenge of making the electric grid resilient in Louisiana, a state that arguably has the longest record of combating climate-related natural disasters and the electric grid destruction they cause.
Verchick explores why Louisiana has so far failed to adequately address the threat to its electric grid, and discusses recent initiatives in the state to develop a more robust, and greener grid even as resistance to such efforts continues.
Robert Verchick is the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans and president of the Center for Progressive Reform. He is also a member of Louisiana Governor John Bel Edward’s Climate Initiatives Task Force.
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Balancing Act: Can Petrochemicals Be Both Emissions Free and Zero-Waste? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/balancing-act-can-petrochemicals-be-both-emissions-free-and-zero-waste/
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A leading energy economist explores the cost of electrifying home heating, the top source of energy demand and carbon emissions in American homes.
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Residential homes account for one fifth of America’s energy consumption, with the largest part of that consumption going toward home heating. In the U.S., more homes are heated with natural gas than any other fuel, a fact that has drawn the attention of policymakers as momentum builds to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
Recently, a number of cities have sought to curtail residential gas use by introducing policies to promote home electrification and, more controversially, through bans that prohibit gas hookups in new homes. While it’s still too early to tell how politically viable, and ultimately effective these efforts will be, what is clear is that the urgency to electrify everything will only intensify as more municipalities, states, and the federal government set ambitious decarbonization goals for the years to come.
Lucas Davis, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, offers a look at the drive to electrify home heating. His recent research examines what motivates households to choose to electrify, how much Americans may be willing to pay in the process, and how this understanding could be used to focus policies that drive rapid and equitable electrification of American homes.
Lucas Davis is an economist at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. His research focuses on energy and environmental markets.
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Climate Tech for Real Estate: The Elephant in the Room https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/climate-tech-for-real-estate-the-elephant-in-the-room/
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Rare earth elements are essential to many clean energy technologies, yet their production can bring severe environmental impacts. A new report grapples with rare earths' environmental negatives and efforts to diversify supply beyond China.
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In 2010 China withheld shipment of rare earth elements to Japan during a territorial dispute between the two countries. Rare earths, a grouping of 17 difficult to mine elements, are essential in the manufacture of goods such as cell phones and computer hard drives. They’re also a critical element in wind turbines and electric vehicle motors.
Today, China is the source of 85% of the world’s supply of refined rare earths, a fact that has raised concern in the United States given the growth of Chinese-American diplomatic tensions and rising demand for clean energy technologies. Any future disruption in the supply of the metals, similar to that experienced by Japan a decade ago, could have a crippling effect on clean energy development in the U.S. and elsewhere.
In the podcast, authors of the recent Kleinman Center report, Rare Earth Elements: A Resource Constraint of the Energy Transition, discuss the market for rare earths, explain why they are so important to clean energy, and examine growing calls to diversify global supply. The authors, Amy Chu of Mills College, and Oscar Serpell of the Kleinman Center, also talk about the high environmental impact of rare earths production, a reality that is at odds with the environmental promise of clean energy.
Amy Chu is an assistant professor of chemistry at Mills College. Oscar Serpell is Associate Director of Academic Programming here at the Kleinman Center. Their report, Rare Earth Elements: A Resource Constraint of the Energy Transition, was funded by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
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Rare Earth Elements: A Resource Constraint of the Energy Transition https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/rare-earth-elements-a-resource-constraint-of-the-energy-transition/
Electricity Storage and Renewables: How Investments Change as Technology Improves. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/electricity-storage-and-renewables-how-investments-change-as-technology-improves/
Electric Vehicles in the City https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/electric-vehicles-in-the-city-the-relationship-of-ev-infrastructure-and-spatial-development-in-beijing/
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The head of the International Energy Agency’s gas division discusses the outlook for natural gas as global efforts to address carbon emissions intensify.
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Natural gas may be the most controversial of all fossil fuels. It has been heralded as a lower carbon alternative to coal as a fuel for electricity generation. At the same time, natural gas-fired generators have proven themselves to be a reliable backup for intermittent wind and solar power, and gas is viewed as an enabler of an increasingly renewables-based electric grid.
Yet natural gas is nonetheless a fossil fuel whose global consumption is on the rise even as a growing number of countries have set out to zero out carbon emissions from their energy systems within the coming two decades.
Peter Fraser, head of the Gas, Coal and Power Markets Division at the International Energy Agency, examines present and future demand for natural gas, and the growing perception of risk that accompanies investment in major natural gas infrastructure projects should demand for gas soften. He also discusses the technologies that must be developed to ensure the cleanest possible gas supply, and to enable a shift to non-gas alternatives.
Peter Fraser heads the Gas, Coal and Power Markets Division at the International Energy Agency. His work includes the IEA Outlooks used by governments and industry to understand the direction of the global energy sector.
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Have We Reached Peak Carbon Emissions? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/have-we-reached-peak-carbon-emissions/
The Essential Role of Negative Emissions in Getting to Carbon Neutral https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-essential-role-of-negative-emissions-in-getting-to-carbon-neutral/
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America’s electric grid is ill-equipped to enable the low carbon energy system of the future. A grid policy expert explores the policy and economic changes that will be needed to bring the grid up to date.
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There is little doubt that the electricity system of the future will look very different from the system that we have today. In the U.S., a growing number of states and the federal government have set 100% clean energy goals for the middle of this century or earlier. The growing demand for clean energy is already evident in fact that wind and solar power now account for the overwhelming majority of new additions to the nation’s power generation fleet.
Yet building an electricity grid to accommodate large amounts of renewable energy raises a host of challenges. The most important of these will be to manage the intermittent nature of wind and solar energy to ensure that reliable power is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Rob Gramlich, President of Grid Strategies and a former economic advisor to the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, discusses strategies to manage all that clean energy, and the hurdles that will need to be overcome to expand the nation’s electric grid and allow wind and solar power to be reliably transmitted, often over hundreds of miles of power lines, to markets throughout the country. To reach this goal, existing frameworks used to plan and pay for electric transmission may need to be fundamentally reworked.
Rob Gramlich is President of Grid Strategies, which provides engineering, economic, and policy analysis for the electric power system. Rob is also Director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, the Watt Coalition, and he is a former economic advisor to the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Electricity Storage and Renewables: How Investments Change as Technology Improves https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/electricity-storage-and-renewables-how-investments-change-as-technology-improves/Related Content
Have We Reached Peak Carbon Emissions?https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/have-we-reached-peak-carbon-emissions/
The Opportunities and Limitations of Seasonal Energy Storage https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-opportunities-and-limitations-of-seasonal-energy-storage/
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Congress has directed the nation’s regulator for natural gas and electricity infrastructure to be more responsive to community and environmental concerns. Will FERC’s new Office of Public Participation deliver on the promise of public inclusion?
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission increasingly finds itself at the center of controversy as momentum in the United States builds for a cleaner and more sustainable energy system.
As the regulator of the nation’s natural gas and electricity networks, the FERC’s job includes the review of applications for new gas pipelines and electric transmission, and FERC commissioners spend a great deal of time assessing the arguments of energy industry legal teams in favor of a given project.
Yet, some argue that the FERC has lost sight of what may be its most important role, which is to guard the public interest, including that of communities and landowners who are most directly affected by the development of energy infrastructure. In fact, community and environmental concerns often find it frustratingly complex, and expensive, to navigate the highly technocratic agency, with the result that public voices may not be adequately heard before the agency.
In response, in December Congress mandated that the FERC present a plan to establish an Office of Public Participation, with the goal to assist the public in taking part in complex FERC proceedings and ensuring that community and landowner concerns are taken into full account. Details of the plan are due to lawmakers by the end of June.
In the podcast Shelly Welton, associate professor at the University of South Carolina Law School, discusses the mandate of the Office of Public Participation, and the challenge of designing the office in a way that ensures that public views are not just voiced, but actively taken into FERC’s decision making process. She also explores why the public can find the FERC such a difficult agency to engage.
Shelley Welton is an associate professor of Law at the University of South Carolina Law School. Her work focuses on the impact of climate change on energy and environmental law.
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What’s the FERC, and How is it Shaping Our Energy Future? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/podcast/whats-the-ferc-and-how-is-it-shaping-our-energy-future-part-1/
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Heidi Binko, Executive Director of the Just Transition Fund, discusses the challenges coal communities face in adapting to a post-coal future, and strategies for economic transition.
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Over the past decade the number of workers directly employed in the U.S. coal industry has fallen by half, as coal has been replaced by cheaper sources of energy such as natural gas and renewable power. From the Appalachian mountains in the East, to the Powder River Basin and tribal communities in the West, the continued decline of the coal industry has been devastating, depriving workers of livelihoods, and towns of revenue to support essential services.
Yet coal communities often have a deep sense of place, and the drive to remain, reinvent, and rebuild is strong.
Heidi Binko, Executive Director of the Just Transition Fund, discusses the impact on coal-dependent communities when the industries that sustain them leave, and looks at efforts of the same communities to find new paths of development and create economically diverse and sustainable futures. She also offers a view of strategies that may help communities facing transition.
Heidi Binko is Executive Director of the Just Transition Fund, an organization that provides access to funding and technical assistance for coal communities.
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Rebalancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-with-community-interests/
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Sheila Oparaocha of the International Network on Gender and Sustainability discusses the global effort to ensure gender equality in energy access, as an essential foundation for economic development and public health.
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One billion people around the world lack access to electricity, and three times as many do not have access to fuel and appliances that allow for clean and safe cooking inside the home. The lack of clean and reliable energy is a major barrier to economic development and an ongoing threat to human health in some of the poorest parts of the globe.
Sheila Oparaocha, the recipient of the Kleinman Center’s 2021 Carnot Prize for outstanding contributions in energy policy, discusses efforts to bring access to reliable, affordable and clean energy to areas in need, and ensure that energy becomes a foundation of economic development that is available to women and men alike.
Oparaocha is the International Coordinator of ENERGIA, the International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy. ENERGIA partners with governments and industry to provide women with access to finance, training and technical skills to build energy-based businesses. It also works with governments and other key actors to integrate gender-responsive approaches in energy policies, programs and projects.
Sheila Oparaocha is the International Coordinator of ENERGIA, the International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy.
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Mongolian Energy Futures: Repowering Ulaanbaatar https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/mongolian-energy-futures-repowering-ulaanbaatar-challenges-of-radical-energy-sector-decarbonization/
Balancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-with-community-interests/
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Nature-based climate solutions can play a major role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. But biodiversity risks, and community impacts, loom large.
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Technology often seems to be the focus when conversation turns to solutions to address climate change. Clean energy, carbon capture and even geoengineering dominate headlines and attract the attention of climate-focused investors. When it comes to protecting coastal communities, infrastructure projects like sea walls and raised roads likewise grab attention, particularly after extreme weather events.
Yet, nature itself is likely to play just as important a role as engineered solutions in our efforts to slow climate change and navigate its worst impacts. Today, scientists and some policymakers are aggressively exploring the potential of nature-based solutions to help us slow and adapt to climate change.
Nathalie Seddon, a professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford, discusses the promise, challenges and potential moral hazards of nature-based climate solutions. Seddon explains what qualifies as a nature based-solution, and looks at the community and biodiversity impacts that need to be taken into account when putting nature-based solutions into action. She also looks at efforts to quantify the benefits of natural climate solutions as a means to accelerate investment.
Nathalie Seddon is a professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford and founding director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative.
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One-third of American households struggle to afford basic energy needs. The University of Michigan’s Tony Reames explores the role of policy in overcoming energy poverty.
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Energy justice and poverty have come to the forefront of public dialogue, and are part of long-standing inequities that continue to persist in the United States. In this country, one-third of households struggle pay for their basic energy needs. In response, federal and state agencies have turned increasing attention toward policies that might alleviate the energy cost burden.
Yet the success of these policies has been mixed, and in many cases programs that might reduce energy burden, such as through increased energy efficiency, have been shown to provide least benefit to communities that need them most.
Tony Reames, leader of the Urban Energy Justice Lab at the University of Michigan and visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, discusses energy poverty in the United States and the challenge of effectively addressing the problem through public policy solutions. Reames also looks at the socioeconomic, racial and geographic underpinnings of energy poverty, and some of the historic factors that have contributed to inequities.
Tony Reames is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, leader of the Urban Energy Justice Lab, and a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. His work focuses on energy justice, and on disparities in residential energy generation, consumption and affordability.
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President Biden will rely upon regulatory agencies like the EPA to push his ambitious clean energy and climate agenda. Yet increasingly conservative courts could stand in the way of Biden’s plans.
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President Joe Biden has set an ambitious clean energy and environmental agenda that includes a $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan, and a renewed commitment to the Paris Climate agreement. To achieve his climate goals, Biden is likely to rely on regulatory agencies, such as the EPA, to craft rules to limit the climate impact of the country’s energy, transportation and related industries.
Yet Biden’s need for new, climate-focused rules arguably couldn’t come at a more inopportune time. New regulations often face legal challenge in the nation’s courts. The most prominent of those courts, the Supreme Court, has turned increasingly conservative, and many legal experts expect it to be generally less supportive of environmental regulations argued before it.
On the podcast, Cary Coglianese, Director of the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, explores the challenge that a conservative Supreme Court may pose for President Biden’s clean energy and climate agenda. Coglianese also looks at how the legal philosophies of the court’s newest conservative members might guide their decisions on climate-related issues.
Cary Coglianese is the Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Director of the Penn Program on Regulation.
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Carbon Dioxide Removal is an industrial-scale strategy to hold climate change in check. Five experts weigh in on CDR’s potential, challenges and moral hazards.
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The global effort to slow the pace of climate change will require that two basic strategies be implemented on a massive scale. The first strategy is well known, and involves shifting away from today’s fossil-fuel dependent energy system, and toward a future where nearly everything will run on electricity produced by zero-carbon resources.
The second part of the effort to combat climate change has, until recently, attracted relatively less attention. Carbon dioxide removal is the process of removing carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere. CDR can be used to offset some of today’s CO2 emissions, and might some day even be able to turn back the clock, by lowering the concentration of atmospheric carbon to levels that existed on an earlier, less hot Earth. CDR will be a key part of any plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by the middle of this century, as the United States, the European Union, and a growing number of countries have proposed to do.
In the podcast, five experts discuss CDR in its many forms, from cutting edge technologies to fundamental nature-based processes, and explore the complex, industrial-scale undertaking that will be required to remove CO2 at scale. The guests, whose research is available in the newly published, online CDR Primer, also look at potential moral hazards, equity challenges and unforeseen consequences of carbon dioxide removal.
Erica L. Belmont is Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wyoming.
Jeremy Freeman is Executive Director at CarbonPlan
Noah McQueen is a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
Peter Psarras is research assistant professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
Toly Rinberg is an Applied Physics Ph.D. Student at Harvard University
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Corporate renewable energy deals equaled a quarter of total U.S. electric power additions in 2020. The Renewable Energy Buyer’s Alliance talks policies to accelerate clean energy purchasing.
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Corporate America’s appetite for renewable energy is booming. In 2020, large businesses signed deals for over 10 GW of new clean generation, equal to a quarter of the total electric power capacity added in the United States for the year. The growth in corporate deals for clean power comes as the price of renewable energy has fallen, and as companies have increasingly felt pressure from the public, investors, and their own employees to address their climate impact.
Miranda Ballentine, CEO of the Renewable Energy Buyer’s Alliance, and Bryn Baker, REBA’s director of policy innovation, discuss the factors that are driving American corporations to make more, and bigger bets on clean energy. The pair also talk about how state and federal policy influences the rate of clean energy procurement, and policy changes that might accelerate development. The Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance is an industry association that represents the U.S.’s largest corporate clean energy buyers.
Miranda Ballentine is Chief Executive Officer of the Renewable Energy Buyer’s Alliance. Bryn Baker is REBA’s Director of Policy Innovation.
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The U.S. forfeited leadership in the global effort to combat climate change when it left the Paris Agreement. Now back, will the U.S. resume its former role?
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On Friday, February the 19th, the United States officially rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, bringing to an end an extended period of national disengagement from the global effort to address climate change. As the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gasses, and today’s second largest emitter behind China, U.S. engagement is critical to the global effort to address climate change.
Yet the climate framework that the U.S. abandoned under the Trump administration looks different today. The U.S., rather than being a clear leader on climate issues, is embarking on an effort to rebuild trust and reassure the world that it will remain committed to addressing climate change, while the relative influence in of China, Europe and other regions has grown in global climate dialogue.
Joanna Lewis, Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University, discusses how the Paris Climate framework, and the global hierarchy of climate leadership, has changed in recent years. She also looks at the barriers that U.S.-China trade tensions may present to climate cooperation as the U.S. rejoins the Paris process.
Joanna Lewis is Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University. She is also a Strategic Advisor to the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
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New research disproves the assumption that exposure to climate-related natural disasters motivates people to support climate policy.
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A common assumption is that direct exposure to climate-related disasters such as severe wildfires and flooding motivates people to support policy to address climate change. Yet new research proves that this assumption doesn’t hold up in reality.
Matto Mildenberger, assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discusses research, conducted in the aftermath of recent California wildfires, that dispels the notion that personal experience with climate-related disasters automatically drives support for policy-driven climate solutions. He also explores how efforts the inform people of personal climate risk can be counterproductive to climate action, and looks at alternate communications strategies that may prove more effective.
Matto Mildenberger is an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work focuses on the political drivers of policy inaction in the face of climate change
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New Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been tasked with combating climate change. What climate action is the Treasury likely to take under her leadership?
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Joe Biden has made the fight against climate change a focus of his new administration. Consistent with that focus is his appointment of Janet Yellen, a former Federal Reserve chairman and an advocate for climate action, to the role of Secretary of the Treasury.
The Treasury Department is responsible for guarding the United States’ economic health. While much of its work during the early months of the Biden Administration will be to help the country to navigate the ongoing economic impacts of the COVID pandemic, economic damages due to climate change have become more apparent in recent years, and the need for the Treasury to take action on the climate front has also become clear.
Joseph Aldy, an energy and climate economist at Harvard University, explores the steps that the new Treasury Secretary can take to address climate change, including the tools that the economic agency might employ to set its own climate policies, and influence climate action in other areas of government. Aldy also discusses the Treasury’s power to influence global climate action as the country’s chief economic diplomat.
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Hydrogen energy is a key part of Europe’s plan to zero out carbon emissions by mid-century. But can the bloc build hydrogen capacity, and demand, in time to reach its goal?
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In August the European Commission introduced its strategy to aggressively expand the market for hydrogen energy as part of its plan to go carbon neutral by the year 2050. The plan envisions using green hydrogen, produced mainly with wind and solar power, as an energy resource in a broad array of industries. In particular, the EU hopes that hydrogen will help it reduce carbon emissions in industries that are deeply dependent on fossil fuels, such as steel production and air travel, and for which there are few other decarbonization options.
Kirsten Westphal, a member of Germany’s National Hydrogen Council, discusses the challenge of growing clean hydrogen supply and demand quickly enough to create a carbon-neutral economy in just 30 years. Westphal also talks about Germany’s plans, as Europe’s largest economy, to finance and build hydrogen infrastructure, as well as the prospects for a truly international hydrogen market.
Kirsten Westphal is a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and a member of Germany’s National Hydrogen Council.
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Electricity storage technologies have proven their worth in balancing daily fluctuations in wind and solar power output. But can storage address the challenges presented by the decarbonized grid of the future?
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President-Elect Joe Biden’s clean energy plan aims to make America’s electricity system carbon neutral by the year 2035. To reach its goal, the plan will seek to develop the nation’s clean energy infrastructure, and expand the role of wind and solar power. Yet renewable energy presents certain challenges, one of which is to ensure that electricity is available even when wind and sunshine are scarce.
In recent years, grid-scale batteries have emerged as an increasingly economic way to address the variability problem, or intermittency, of wind and solar output. In fact, over the last two years demand for grid-scale energy storage has accelerated, particularly in the Southwest, where batteries are increasingly used to balance daily ebbs in solar generation.
Yet as renewables become a larger part of America’s energy mix, the challenge of balancing intermittency will grow exponentially. Eventually, storage could be called upon not only to even out daily fluctuations in energy output, but seasonal variation as well.
Kleinman Center research associate Oscar Serpell explores the potential for grid electricity storage, in its many forms, to meet the seasonal balancing demands of a low-carbon electric grid. He also looks at the limitations of today’s energy storage technologies, and at the advances that may be needed to enable dramatic reductions in carbon emissions from the electricity industry.
Oscar Serpell is research associate with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
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Balancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-with-community-interests/
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Georgia’s runoff election will determine the balance of power in the Senate, and the degree to which Joe Biden will count on Congress to back his ambitious clean energy agenda.
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On January 5th a special runoff election in the state of Georgia will determine who will fill the state’s two seats in the United States Senate and which political party, Republican or Democrat, will control the upper chamber of Congress. The runoff election will be the final act in a tumultuous election season, in which the parties have offered starkly different visions for the role of government, the future direction of America’s energy system, and how that system will impact our environment.
Crucially, the outcome of Georgia’s runoff election will determine the degree to which President-Elect Joe Biden may be able to count on the Senate’s support in enacting his energy platform, which aims for a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035. Bethany Davis Noll and Richard Revesz, regulatory experts whose work focuses on the legal tools available to presidents to pursue their agendas, take a look at the options available to Biden to pursue his energy agenda with, or without, help from the Senate.
Bethany Davis Noll is litigation director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. Richard Revesz is Dean Emeritus at the NYU School of Law and Director of the Institute for Policy Integrity.
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Will Trump’s Regulatory Rollbacks Survive? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/will-trumps-regulatory-rollbacks-survive
How to Combat the Corona-Recession and Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/08/07/how-combat-corona-recession-and-climate-change
Balancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-community-interests
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Large scale offshore wind development will require a rethink of how America’s electric grid is designed, and paid for.
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Over the coming decade, a number of states along the East Coast of the U.S. will deploy massive offshore windfarms in the Atlantic Ocean as part of their efforts to meet clean energy goals and reduce global warming emissions. Planning for the wind farms is well underway, and the first projects sponsored by New York, New Jersey and other coastal states are expected to begin generating electricity by 2025.
Yet reaching long term, aggressive offshore wind power targets presents numerous challenges. The most pressing may be the need to build out the electric grid to reliably and economically deliver vast quantities of offshore wind power to market. This is an issue that the states, offshore wind developers, and operators of the country’s electric grid are now grappling with. Solutions may require a fundamental reworking of how the electric grid is planned and financed.
Brandon Burke, Policy and Outreach Director with the Business Network for Offshore Wind, discusses the challenge of transforming the electric grid to enable offshore wind power.
Brandon Burke is an attorney and Policy and Outreach Director with the Business Network for Offshore Wind. Brandon is a 2018 graduate of the Kleinman Center’s Certificate in Energy Management and Policy program.
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U.S. Electricity Regulator Takes a Hard Look at Carbon Pricing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/us-electricity-regulator-takes-hard-look-carbon-pricing
Developing Our Renewable Energy Future
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/04/21/developing-our-renewable-energy-future
Developing the Electric Grid for Carbon Free Energy https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/developing-electric-grid-carbon-free-energy
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Electricity market deregulation promised to bring more affordable and reliable electricity to consumers. A quarter of a century after deregulation began, has its promise delivered for all Americans?
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The process of deregulating electricity markets began a quarter of a century ago, with the aim of leveraging competitive market forces to provide consumers with abundant and reliable electricity more economically than ever before. As experience has shown, however, deregulation has brought both benefits and challenges
In the early years of deregulation, an ill-conceived strategy to introduce competition to California’s electricity market led to market manipulation, high energy prices, and ultimately to utility bankruptcies. Yet over the last decade, deregulation has provided generally better outcomes. Competitive markets have been able to efficiently pass cost savings from the shale gas revolution to consumers, and competition has created a dynamic platform for the entry of new forms of clean and distributed energy.
Yet the question remains. On the whole, has deregulation delivered on its promise to give consumers abundant and reliable electricity more economically than before?
This special episode of Energy Policy Now was recorded live at Grid Forward 2020, an annual event that brings together leading insights from a range of stakeholders to address opportunities for electric grid modernization. Debaters Mark Kolesar and Bruce Edelston square off around the question of whether deregulation has ultimately led to better community outcomes which, in today’s context, means more than just cheap and reliable service, but also equitable access to clean energy options, and the environmental and public health benefits that a cleaner electricity system promises.
Mark Kolesar is Managing Principal at Kolesar Buchanan and Associates, and former Chairman of the Alberta Utilities Commission.
Bruce Edelston is President of the Energy Policy Group and former Vice President for Energy Policy at the Southern Company.
Grid Forward is an industry association defining pathways for electric grid modernization via advanced technology, policy progress and business innovation.
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Balancing Renewable Energy Goals With Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-community-interests
Energy Transitions Are Brown Before They Go Green. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/energy-transitions-are-brown-they-go-green
Zoning Rules Stifle Clean Energy. Can The Rules Be Rewritten? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/zoning-rules-stifle-urban-clean-energy-can-rules-be-rewritten
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In September the U.S. electricity regulator, the FERC, held its first conference to explore carbon pricing in the nation’s electricity markets. Is a carbon price finally on the way?
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In late September the regulator of America’s electricity markets, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, took the unusual step of convening a conference at which it, and members of the electricity industry, considered putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions. The meeting came as wholesale electricity markets, which supply power for two-thirds of Americans, have entered into a period of turmoil that, at the extreme, threatens to break those very markets apart, and which is based in the challenge of addressing climate change.
Mike Borgatti, Vice President for RTO Services and Regulatory Affairs at energy consultancy Gabel Associates, explains the debate over carbon pricing in electricity markets, and the FERC’s recent, contentious efforts to balance conflicting state and national climate agendas.
Mike Borgatti is Vice President for RTO Services and Regulatory Affairs at Gabel Associates, an energy and public utility consultancy. He advises energy industry clients that participate in the nation’s electricity markets, and has been at the forefront of efforts to explore carbon pricing in the world’s largest power market, PJM Interconnection.
Mike Borgatti is Vice President for RTO Services and Regulatory Affairs at Gabel Associates, an energy and public utility consultancy. He advises energy industry clients that participate in the nation’s electricity markets, and has been at the forefront of efforts to explore carbon pricing in the world’s largest power market, PJM Interconnection.
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What’s the FERC, and How Is It Shaping Our Energy Future? (Part 1). https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/whats-ferc-and-how-it-shaping-our-energy-future-part-1
The Rise of Partisan Politics in Energy Regulation https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/rise-partisan-politics-energy-regulation
FERC’s Order Redesigning PJM’s Capacity Market https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/07/12/fercs-order-redesigning-pjms-capacity-market
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Outmoded and often discriminatory zoning laws block clean energy development in low-income urban neighborhoods. An effort is underway to update rules, and enable clean energy equity.
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An energy transformation is underway in the United States, with clean energy and energy efficiency reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. Yet the advantages of clean energy aren’t enjoyed equally throughout the country. Clean energy development has lagged in older, densely built urban areas. Low-income neighborhoods, in particular, have seen relatively less investment in renewables, and can find it hard to take advantage of technologies like rooftop solar that can lower electricity bills. And, while there are many efforts underway to address these equity challenges, for example through community energy programs, fundamental barriers to energy transformation remain.
Sara Bronin, professor of law at the University of Connecticut and former chair of Hartford, Connecticut’s Planning and Zoning Commission, explores the impact that one such hurdle, outmoded and often discriminatory community zoning rules, can have on access to clean energy. Progressive rules can ease the adoption of clean infrastructure, yet many zoning regulations date back decades and fail to take modern energy into account. Bronin discusses the interplay of zoning and energy, and efforts to reform zoning regulations for greater clean energy access.
Sara Bronin is Faculty Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Law at the University of Connecticut.
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Balancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-community-interests
The Best Local Response to Climate Change is a Comprehensive Efficiency Plan https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/best-local-response-climate-change-comprehensive-efficiency-plan
Electric Vehicles in the City: The Relationship of EV Infrastructure and Spatial Development in Beijing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/electric-vehicles-city
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An environmental lawyer examines the legal and social challenges that could complicate managed retreat from areas at risk to climate-related disaster.
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When policymakers talk about adapting to climate change, they often focus on measures to reinforce towns and cities against natural disasters, such as the wildfires and flooding that have become more severe across the United States in recent years. Yet what is often more difficult to contemplate is the idea that some places may inevitably need to be abandoned. This idea of abandonment, or retreat from areas that are at great risk due to climate change, is understandably very difficult to think about. Retreat means leaving behind homes, and the possible disruption of communities and livelihoods.
Mark Nevitt, associate professor of law at Syracuse University and a former legal counsel with the Department of Defense Regional Environmental Counsel in Norfolk, Virginia, explores how managed retreat ahead of likely disaster is itself a key climate adaptation strategy, and one which may ease, though not eliminate, the burden on impacted communities. Mark discusses his recent Kleinman Center-funded research into legal issues associated with climate adaptation, and how existing laws may present barriers to efforts to manage retreat from high risk areas.
Mark Nevitt is an associate professor of law at Syracuse University.
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Climate Adaptation Strategies: How Do We “Manage” Managed Retreat? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/climate-adaptation-strategies
It’s Time to Rethink Flood Insurance
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/06/29/its-time-rethink-flood-insurance
Rising Seas and the Future of Coastal Cities https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/rising-seas-and-future-coastal-cities
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Much attention has been paid to the ways we humans are changing our climate. Yet, how has an ever-evolving climate changed us?
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Climate change is one of the monumental challenges of our day, but the reality of climate change is nothing new. In recent decades, scientific advances have expanded our understanding of prehistory, and brought into ever sharper focus the connection between historic variations in climate and the development of humanity and society.
By taking a look at the history of climate change, we might see more clearly why today’s warming is so different from periods of change that came before, and how climate change can amplify economic and societal pressures that are already in place.
University of Pennsylvania economist Jesus Fernandez Villaverde looks back through time to discuss how climate change may have forced our primate ancestors down the road of evolution, contributed to the fall of empires and, more recently, helped to spur great migrations of people, including those that led to the building of the United States.
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200 Years of Energy History in 30 Minutes https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/200-years-energy-history-30-minutes
Energy Transitions Are Brown Before They Go Green. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/energy-transitions-are-brown-they-go-green
The Essential Role of Negative Emissions in Getting to Carbon Neutral https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/essential-role-negative-emissions-getting-carbon-neutral
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Most carbon tax proposals include a border adjustment to protect American industry from foreign competition. Yet research suggests that benefits won't extend to consumers.
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Most economists agree that the best way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming is by implementing a carbon tax, and making it more expensive to buy products and services with a high carbon content. Yet by putting a price on carbon, countries may drive up costs for domestic businesses, putting them at a competitive disadvantage to foreign competitors from countries where no carbon price exists.
Two experts in climate law and economics look at the most commonly proposed solution to protect American businesses from the competitive impacts of a carbon tax. The solution, known as a border adjustment, would ensure that American and imported goods are subject to the same carbon price.
The tool seems simple enough, and in fact every carbon tax proposal in Congress this year features a border adjustment. Yet research suggests that the economic protections promised by border adjustments may not be as great as commonly assumed.
David Weisbach is a professor of law at the University of Chicago. Sam Kortum is an economics professor at Yale University. Their work has focused on the role of taxation in addressing climate change, and potential competitive implications of a carbon tax.
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The Essential Role of Negative Emissions in Getting to Carbon Neutral https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/essential-role-negative-emissions-getting-carbon-neutral
Will COVID-19 Permanently Change the Energy Sector https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/05/29/will-covid-19-permanently-change-energy-sector
Robust Carbon Markets: Rethinking Quantities and Prices in Carbon Pricing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/robust-carbon-markets
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President Trump has gone to great lengths to undo the regulatory accomplishments of his predecessor. But the President’s methods could come back to haunt him, dooming his deregulatory energy and environmental agendas.
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The Trump Administration has taken aggressive steps to undo the regulatory accomplishments of former president Obama, with some of the highest profile rollbacks taking place in the energy and environmental arenas. In his three years in office, President Trump has repealed the Clean Power Plan, rolled back restrictions on methane leaks and, most recently, repealed limits on automotive tailpipe emissions.
Yet, it’s possible that the same tools that Trump has used to undo the regulatory achievements of his predecessor could be turned against him.
A pair of regulatory experts take a look at President Trump’s unprecedented use of three legal tools to pursue his deregulatory agenda, and at how a new administration could use these same tools to roll back Trump-era rules. They also discuss how the very nature of future presidencies may be altered as the deregulatory gloves have been taken off, limiting the ability of presidents to enact important rules on any front.
Bethany Davis Noll is Litigation Director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. Richard Revesz is Dean Emeritus at NYU School of Law, and directs the Institute for Policy Integrity.
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Whither the Regulatory War on Coal: Scapegoats, Saviors, and Stock Market Reactions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/working-paper-whither-regulatory-war-coal
The Rise of Partisan Politics in Energy Regulation https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/rise-partisan-politics-energy-regulation
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The social cost of carbon provides an estimate of the economic damage caused by carbon emissions. A climate economist tells how it's calculated.
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One of the most hotly debated issues in climate policy is the value of the social cost of carbon, which is an estimate of the damage that will come from releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The social cost of carbon is a useful measure to help us understand the price that should be placed on carbon today to limit carbon dioxide emissions, and minimize the climate-related damages that future generations will face.
Climate economist Gilbert Metcalf explains how the social cost of carbon is calculated, and looks at the factors that economists take into account in arriving at a value. He also discusses why the value of the social cost of carbon is so contentious, and why the cost estimates accepted by the Trump and Obama administrations diverge so widely.
Gilbert Metcalf is a professor of economics at Tufts University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His work focuses on taxation, energy, and environmental economics.
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Why Americans Want a Carbon Tax, But Won’t Support One at the Polls https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/why-americans-want-carbon-tax-wont-support-one-polls
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Climate change, and policies to address it, will change where Americans live and work, and produce energy and food. Two environmental designers discuss an atlas of the country’s future.
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A year ago, Democratic members of Congress introduced a resolution to address climate change and economic inequality, with a plan that promises to fundamentally alter Americans’ relationship to their natural and built environments. That vision, the Green New Deal, recalls an earlier bold plan of action for the country at a time of crisis.
Nearly 90 years ago the original New Deal created vast public works projects to create jobs during the Great Depression. But its legacy transcends economic recovery. Public works projects realized the goal of universal electrification, built highways to speed future growth, and paved the way for migration to the suburbs and from old industrial centers to new. Along the way, the New Deal fundamentally altered the human map of the United States.
Today’s Green New Deal proposes to do something similar. If it comes to pass, it’s likely to change where many Americans live, and how they make their living.
Guests Alexandra Lillehei and Billy Fleming of the University of Pennsylvania’s Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Design talk about what a future map of America, shaped by climate change and a Green New Deal, might look like.
The two have been instrumental in a new initiative called The 2100 Project: An Atlas for the Green New Deal. Through maps, the project envisions changes in population distribution, energy production and agricultural activity over the course of this century.
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De-Abstracting Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/05/19/de-abstracting-climate-change
Balancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-community-interests
Changing Tides: Public Attitudes on Climate Change and Climate Migration https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/changing-tides
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An economist looks at how economic worries, and political ideology, have made carbon taxes a tough sell.
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Economists generally agree that the most efficient way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming is by putting a price on carbon in the form of a carbon tax. Consumers, though, can tend see things differently. The idea of taxing the fuels that run our cars, and power our homes and jobs, has given Americans pause and, as a result, no carbon tax has been levied to date in the United States.
Nevertheless, calls for a carbon tax have become more frequent as concern over climate change has intensified. On Capitol Hill, there are half a dozen carbon fee proposals in circulation, with backing from liberals and conservatives. States have also explored carbon pricing, most notably the state of Washington, where two recent carbon tax ballot initiatives were defeated at the polls.
Ioana Marinescu, an economist at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the challenge of enacting a carbon tax. She also explores policymakers’ efforts to develop carbon tax legislation to appeal to the broad public, and what might be required for these efforts to ultimately succeed.
Ioana Marinescu is assistant professor of public policy with the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Robust Carbon Markets: Rethinking Quantities and Prices Carbon Pricing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/robust-carbon-markets
It’s Ideology, Stupid: Why Voters Still Shun Carbon Taxes https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/its-ideology-stupid
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More states are targeting 100% clean energy, but is the electric grid ready? An expert in energy policy and economics looks at the policy challenges to creating a robust, carbon-free electricity system.
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Across the U.S., a growing number of states have adopted ambitious clean energy goals that will require the bulk of their electricity to come from carbon-free sources by the middle of this century. Yet clean energy will place new demands on the electricity system, which will need to accommodate intermittent wind and solar power, and distributed energy from rooftop solar and electric vehicles. This is a tall order for a grid that was built around large, central power plants fueled by a predictable supply of fossil and nuclear fuel.
Judy Chang, an energy economist and engineer with the Brattle Group, explores the policy challenges to updating the electric grid to economically and reliably deliver clean energy. She looks at the cost of building a more flexible grid, and at the political opportunities, and hurdles to its development.
Judy Chang is an energy economist and engineer with the Brattle Group who has served as an expert witness before energy regulators in the United States and Canada. Her work focuses on renewable energy, transmission networks, and electricity market design.
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Energy Transition Challenges for the 2020s https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/energy-transition-challenges-2020s
Preparing PGW for a low-carbon future. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/preparing-pgw-low-carbon-future
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Political scientist Leah Stokes examines interest groups’ power to shape, and resist, progressive energy policy.
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Interest groups play a central role in American politics, and nowhere has their influence been felt more acutely than in the areas of energy and environmental politics. Leah Stokes, assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discusses the outsized role of special interests in shaping debate around clean energy and in defining policies to address the environmental and climate impacts of our energy system.
In March, Stokes published her first book, Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the United States, the culmination of six years of research into special interest groups. Stokes shares her findings, including and strategies to overcome opposition to progressive energy policies, in conversation.
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When Emissions Reductions Aren’t Sustainable. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/04/15/when-emission-reductions-arent-sustainable
Energy Transitions Are Brown Before They Go Green https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/energy-transitions-are-brown-they-go-green
Wind Developers Pressured by Pandemic Concerns and 2020 PTC Deadlines https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/04/09/wind-developers-pressured-pandemic-concerns-2020-ptc-deadlines
Changing Tides: Public Attitudes on Climate Change and Climate Migration https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/changing-tides
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The residential solar power industry faces the expiration of a key tax break and resistance to net-metering. But the addition of battery storage, and an emerging role in grid services, make solar a valuable tool for grid resiliency.
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Last year, solar power accounted for 40 percent of new electric generating capacity additions in the U.S. Yet the industry faces a number of challenges, including the ending of federal incentives for solar projects and an uncertain future for net metering, both of which have been instrumental in the industry’s growth. The coronavirus will also impact solar adoption as consumers and businesses focus their attention elsewhere.
Anne Hoskins, head of federal and state policy at Sunrun, the nation’s largest residential solar power company, discusses the industry’s challenges and grounds for optimism, including solar power’s role in addressing the challenge of grid resiliency, particularly where emerging climate impacts are placing unprecedented demands on the electricity system.
Anne Hoskins is chief policy officer at Sunrun.
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Energy Transitions are Brown Before They Go Green https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/energy-transitions-are-brown-they-go-green
Wind Developers Pressured by Pandemic Concerns & 2020 PTC Deadlines https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/04/09/wind-developers-pressured-pandemic-concerns-2020-ptc-deadlines
The Path Forward for Grid Electricity Storage https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/path-forward-grid-electricity-storage
One Year Later: Solar Energy in Philadelphia is Still on the Rise. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/02/06/one-year-later-solar-energy-philadelphia-still-rise
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Energy projects bring economic opportunity, but host communities often suffer disproportionate health and environmental impacts. An expert in environmental regulation looks at community efforts to exert control over energy development.
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Communities across the United States are coming into conflict with their state governments over where and how energy projects may be built. The issue has drawn attention in energy-rich states like Texas, where a half decade ago the state government introduced a law that prevented towns from limiting fracking within their jurisdiction. Conversely, last year in Colorado cities and towns gained power to regulate local energy development after a number of previous efforts to assert local authority had failed.
The challenge isn’t confined to fossil fuels. On the renewable energy front, communities have opposed wind, solar and other projects that residents say could bring their own set of environmental problems.
Hannah Wiseman, Dean for Environmental Programs at the Florida State University College of Law, discusses energy development turf wars and the often conflicting priorities of states and the cities and towns within their borders. She also discusses strategies that may help strike a balance between local health and environmental concerns and the larger economic and climate benefits that the development of new energy projects can bring.
Hannah Wiseman is Professor and Associate Dean for Environmental Programs at the Florida State University College of Law. Her work focuses on the role that regulation plays in balancing energy development and environmental quality.
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Energy Transitions Are Brown Before They Go Green. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/energy-transitions-are-brown-they-go-green
A Preview of Key Energy Challenges for the 2020s
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/03/06/preview-key-energy-challenges-2020s
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Nobel Laureate Daniel Kammen, head of U.C. Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, discusses efforts to build clean energy solutions that meet the social and developmental needs of the communities they serve.
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Discussions around today’s clean energy transition tend to focus on technological challenges, and the costs and climate benefits of renewable energy. Yet the social and cultural implications of a transition to clean energy are often overlooked.
Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kammen talks about his research into the ways that the adoption of clean energy may impact society and, by extension, guide political discourse. He also discusses how taking into account social, economic and developmental realities could accelerate the move away from fossil fuels, and speed electrification in some of the poorest regions of the globe.
Daniel Kammen is Distinguished Professor of Energy in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also Director of Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, and a former Science Envoy for the U.S. State Department.
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Mongolian Energy Futures: Challenges of Radical Energy Sector Decarbonization https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/mongolian-energy-futures-repowering-ulaanbaatar
Robust Carbon Markets: Rethinking Quantities and Prices in Carbon Pricing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/robust-carbon-markets
Energy Transition Challenges for the 2020s https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/energy-transition-challenges-2020s
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The author of the first text book on carbon capture looks at the potential for negative emissions technologies to limit global warming, and discusses the challenge to scaling solutions for positive climate impact.
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Negative emissions technologies are a key part of the strategy to keep global warming within the 2 degree Celsius limit set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. In fact, its projected that we’ll need to remove dramatic quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year to keep within the Paris goal. Yet today negative emissions hardly exists in any practical sense, and major barriers to growth lie ahead in the form of high costs, environmental impacts and political support.
Jennifer Wilcox, professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and author of the very first text book on carbon capture, talks about the challenge of scaling negative emissions technologies to the point at which they can meaningfully limit carbon dioxide concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere. Along the way, she looks at how the challenge of scaling negative emissions recalls early barriers to growing the wind and solar industries, and at recent efforts to speed the deployment of negative emissions technologies including direct air capture.
Jennifer Wilcox is professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She is a member of committees at the National Academies of Sciences and the American Physical Society charged with assessing carbon capture methods, their costs, and their climate impacts.
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Exploring a Tool to Curb Climate Change: Direct Air Capture https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/02/19/exploring-tool-curb-climate-change-direct-air-capture
What’s Behind Poland’s Opposition to EU Climate Neutrality Agreement https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/12/13/whats-behind-polands-opposition-eu-climate-neutrality-agreement
Robust Carbon Markets: Rethinking Quantities and Prices in Carbon Pricing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/robust-carbon-markets
Preparing PGW for a Low-Carbon Future https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/preparing-pgw-low-carbon-future
Betting on Climate Solutions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/betting-climate-solutions
A Hard Look at Negative Emissions (Podcast) https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/hard-look-negative-emissions
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What key developments are likely to mark the energy industry in the decade of the 2020s? Two experts in energy politics and economics offer their views of the future.
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In looking back on history we often tend mark time by the decade. In the world of energy, the decade of 1970s is remembered as an era of oil crises and concern that the world’s energy supply was running out. More recently, the decade of the 2010s stands out for the emergence of shale oil and gas, and the growing adoption of renewables.
And now, as we embark upon a new decade, it’s time to consider what key developments in energy the 2020s might bring.
Two experts in the history of energy technology and politics offer their views on key energy trends that are likely to emerge in the decade ahead. The pair takes a particularly close look at how renewable energy might develop in the 2020s, and barriers to growth to watch out for.
Johannes Urpelainen is professor of Energy, Resources and Environment in the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Michael Aklin is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. The two have launched a research program, the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy, to promote sustainable energy in emerging economies.
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Robust Carbon Markets: Rethinking Quantities and Prices in Carbon Pricing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/robust-carbon-markets
Whither the Regulatory War on Coal? Scapegoats, Saviors, and Stock Market Reactions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/working-paper-whither-regulatory-war-coal
How the Democratic-Republican Climate Rift Became Political Reality https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/how-democratic-republican-climate-rift-became-political-reality
200 Years of Energy History in 30 Minutes https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/200-years-energy-history-30-minutes
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Last June the largest oil refinery on the East Coast of the United States blew up. In the disaster’s wake, can the city of Philadelphia and its residents transition to a cleaner, more financially sound future?
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On June 21, 2019 the largest oil refinery on the East Coast exploded. The blast released thousands of pounds of toxic hydrogen fluoride gas into the surrounding Philadelphia air, and launched bus-sized debris across the neighboring Schuylkill River. Through sheer luck, the dissipating effect of winds on toxic gasses, and thanks to the clear headed emergency action of refinery operators, no one was seriously injured in the moments following the blast.
Yet many in this city point out that the refinery leaves behind a legacy of health impacts, including elevated asthma rates in the densely populated neighborhoods that surround the site. The refinery also leaves a vast patch of urban landscape that is so toxic that it’s doubtful that it can ever be used for residential development.
In the months following the explosion, the city, its residents, and business interests jockeyed over the site’s fate. Proposals were floated to repurpose the site as a logistics hub, return it to its natural state as a tidal marshland, and even to repair and reopen the damaged refinery itself. Yet, the decision on what to do with the site would ultimately be made within the walls of a Delaware bankruptcy court, where the priorities of the refinery’s creditors would take precedence.
On January 22 the waiting came to an end. The court announced that a Chicago-based real-estate company had agreed to purchase the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery for $240 million dollars. The buyer has not yet announced a detailed vision for the site, but has a history of redeveloping industrial locations for less-polluting uses. Yet the auction’s losing bidders aren’t looking to go quietly, and there may be more drama to come.
Dr. Mark Alan Hughes, director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and former founding sustainability manager for the city of Philadelphia, talks about the sale of Philadelphia Energy Solutions and what the future may hold for the city of Philadelphia.
Related Content
Beyond Bankruptcy: The Outlook for Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Refinery https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/beyond-bankruptcy
This Energy Transition is Different. Here’s Why https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/12/05/energy-transition-different-heres-why
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2020 will be a crucial year for the Paris Agreement. An architect of the climate process considers the implications of the U.S. presidential election, and what might be accomplished in the months ahead.
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In November of this year the 195 countries that are part of the Paris climate process will hold their annual summit in Glasgow, Scotland. At the talks, countries are expected to announce more aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets in response to recent reports from the UN and others that highlight both the dangers of a warming climate, and the inadequacy of current efforts to keep warming to a minimum.
Yet concern is growing over whether the vital goals of the Glasgow conference can be met. Recently, at the COP25 summit in Madrid in December, countries remained far apart on key rules to guide implementation of the Paris Agreement going forward. What’s more, 2020 could prove to be a year of climate limbo, as the world awaits the outcome of the U.S. presidential election that will likely determine whether the U.S. returns to the Paris process and resumes a leadership role.
Andrew Light, an architect of the U.S. involvement in the Paris Climate Agreement, talks about the current status of the Paris climate process, and what we might expect as 2020 unfolds.
Andrew Light is a Distinguished Senior Fellow in the Global Climate Program at the World Resources Institute, and University Professor at George Mason University. He formerly served with the U.S. State Department, where he was a member of the senior strategy team for UN Climate Negotiations and U.S. participation in the Paris Accord.
Related Content
Changing Tides: Public Attitudes on Climate Change and Climate Migration. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/changing-tides
Robust Carbon Markets: Rethinking Quantities and Prices in Carbon Pricing. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/robust-carbon-markets
Rethinking Global Emissions Trading
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/rethinking-global-emissions-trading
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As climate-related disasters become more severe and frequent, insurers and governments face an economic black hole.
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The insurance industry specializes in understanding the nature of risk, and in estimating the likelihood, and cost, of future damages that can result.
A major challenge for the insurance industry is to understand how climate change alters the likelihood of future natural disasters, from floods to wildfires, and how to accurately reflect these risks in the premiums it charges to consumers and businesses.
Carolyn Kousky, executive director of the Wharton Risk Center, takes a look at insurers’ struggle to manage natural disasters of unprecedented scale, the challenge of communicating climate risk, and how climate risk is being felt in the energy industry.
Carolyn Kousky is executive director of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on disaster insurance markets and policy responses to changes in extreme events arising from climate change.
Related Content
Changing Tides: Public Attitudes on Climate Change and Climate Migration https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/changing-tides
Does Attribution Science Give Climate Litigators a Smoking Gun? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/does-attribution-science-give-climate-litigators-smoking-gun
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The Power of Siberia gas pipeline brings Russia and China closer together, and reveals a new power dynamic between the two countries.
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In early December China received its first delivery of Russian natural gas through the Power of Siberia pipeline. The new pipeline crosses 1800 miles of Siberian wilderness from the Arctic to the Chinese border, and is vitally important to both countries. For Russia, the pipeline will be a source of much needed foreign revenue, and a counter to US and European economic sanctions that followed its annexation of Crimea in 2014. China, for its part, gains a new alternative to imports of liquefied natural gas, and improved energy security.
Beyond Power of Siberia’s energy and economic benefits, much has been made its political implications. The pipeline is the latest example of deepening ties between China and Russia at a time when both countries have been at odds with another key player in the global energy market, the United States.
Kleinman Center Senior Fellows Anna Mikulska and Bill Hederman take a look at what Power of Siberia may reveal about a shift in the global energy market, and the geopolitical influence of key players in that market.
Anna Mikulska is a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and a nonresident fellow in energy studies at the Rice University’s Baker Institute. Bill Hederman is a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center, and a former senior advisor within the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Nord Stream 2: Energy Security for Europe or Prelude to Russian Aggression in the Baltic? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/09/04/nord-stream-2-energy-security-europe-or-prelude-russian-aggression-baltic
Saudi Aramco: A Big Bet on Oil https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/12/18/saudi-aramco-big-bet-big-oil
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The airline industry has a plan to limit its carbon footprint. Will it deliver?
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The global air travel industry is growing rapidly, with the number of airline passengers projected to double in less than 20 years. Yet strong growth may not be entirely good news for the industry, which has come under scrutiny for its outsized carbon footprint in an age when concern over climate change is on the rise.
An expert on airline emissions looks at the uniquely difficult challenge airlines face in reducing greenhouse emissions even as ridership grows, and at whether an industry plan to hold emissions in check will in fact deliver. Guest Andrew Murphy, aviation manager at Brussels-based Transport and Environment, also explores the role air travel may play in helping or hindering countries in their efforts to fulfill national and international climate commitments, including those under the Paris Climate Accord.
Andrew Murphy is manager for aviation at Transport and Environment, an organization in Brussels, Belgium that works alongside industry and governments to reduce transportation emissions.
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Climate Change and Financial Risks https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/climate-change-and-financial-risks
Bye-Bye Bus: Ride Hail in Philadelphia https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/bye-bye-bus
Rethinking Global Emissions Trading https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/rethinking-global-emissions-trading
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The Environmental Defense Fund's chief economist discusses a plan that leverages international cooperation to achieve ambitious, and durable greenhouse emissions reductions under the Paris climate framework.
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The first global climate pact, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, created the foundation for global emissions trading by allowing developed countries to purchase carbon offsets from areas of the globe where the cost of reducing greenhouse emissions was lowest.
Yet emissions trading under the Kyoto framework was far from perfect.
Too many projects failed to deliver carbon reductions beyond what would have happened anyway. And even where climate benefits were real, projects often weren’t built to last and deliver ongoing reductions on the scale needed to address the long-term challenge of climate change.
Suzi Kerr, chief economist at the Environmental Defense Fund, discusses a new framework for global emissions trading under the Paris Climate Accord, intended to incentivize ambitious and sustained emissions reductions. The plan, called Climate Teams, creates small groups of countries that are economically committed to each other and to creating financial and technological conditions needed to address climate change over the long term.
Suzi Kerr is chief economist with the Environmental Defense Fund in New York. Her work focuses on domestic and international climate change policy.
Related Content
Betting on Climate Solutions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/betting-climate-solutions
Why Carbon Pricing Falls Short, and What to Do About it https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/why-carbon-pricing-falls-short
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Puerto Rico’s electric system was destroyed by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Will privatization of the island’s electric utility ensure reliable and affordable energy for the future?
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In 2017 Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico’s electric grid, cutting off power to the island’s residents, some of whom remained without electricity for nearly a year. The island’s publicly owned power utility, PREPA, is now for sale, and it’s hoped that privatization will deliver an electric grid better prepared to endure future tropical storms, and to deliver power that Puerto Ricans can afford.
David Skeel, member of Puerto Rico’s congressionally mandated Financial Oversight and Management Board tasked with guiding the recovery of Puerto Rico’s bankrupt economy, talks about PREPA’s controversial privatization plan and the challenge of overcoming years of mismanagement and corruption that have dogged the utility.
David Skeel is the S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a member of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board.
Related Content
Climate Change and Financial Risks https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/climate-change-and-financial-risks
Power Over the Twenty-First Century Electric Grid https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/power-over-twenty-first-century-electric-grid
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Cheryl LaFleur, former commissioner with the U.S.’ top electricity and gas market regulator, talks about the growing influence of partisan politics in energy regulation.
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Over the past decade the emergence of shale natural gas and concern over climate change have fundamentally changed the U.S. energy landscape, and the way in which Americans talk about energy. Cheryl LaFleur, until August a commissioner with the nation’s top electricity and natural gas market regulator, has been outspoken in her concern over the rise of partisanship in energy dialogue, and how political divides may impact regulation of the nation’s energy industry.
LaFleur served for a decade with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and as the commission’s chairman during both the Obama and Trump presidencies. She talks about the risk that party politics pose to the FERC’s mandate to be an impartial arbiter of the nation’s energy markets. She also looks at how growing climate concern may complicate the commission’s job of overseeing the sector, and at the widening rift between states and the federal government over key energy and environmental policy issues.
Cheryl LaFleur was a commissioner with the FERC from 2010 to August, 2019. On October 24, 2019, LaFleur received the Carnot Prize for distinguished contributions to energy policy from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, the producer of Energy Policy Now.
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Working Paper: Whither the Regulatory ‘War on Coal’? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/working-paper-whither-regulatory-war-coal
It’s Ideology, Stupid: Why Voters Still Shun Carbon Taxes https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/its-ideology-stupid
Florida Will Be the First State to Swing on Climate. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/09/30/florida-will-be-first-state-swing-climate
How the Democratic-Republican Climate Rift Became Political Reality https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/how-democratic-republican-climate-rift-became-political-reality
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Battery storage will play a central role in decarbonizing the nation’s electric grid, yet the rules by which batteries will compete in electricity markets have yet to be agreed upon.
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The cost of battery electric storage technology is falling rapidly, creating opportunity for batteries to play a growing role in the nation’s electricity system and in the reduction of the grid’s carbon footprint. Last year, the regulator of the nation’s electricity markets, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, acknowledged the growing potential of storage when it established guidelines for batteries to fully, and profitably, take part in the nation’s electricity markets.
A year later, however, a number of legal and regulatory challenges remain that could slow the growth of battery storage, and make it harder for the technology to achieve the economies of scale it will need to compete with traditional sources of electric power.
Kleinman Center Senior Fellow Ken Kulak takes a look at the role of regulation in defining the future of energy storage and its ability to serve as a complement to carbon free energy. He also previews the upcoming FERC meeting where the agency is expected to rule on U.S. electricity markets’ plans to open their doors to full participation of battery storage.
Ken Kulak is a partner at the law firm Morgan Lewis where he focuses on energy regulation and complex energy transactions. He is also a Senior Fellow here at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
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Opportunities to Bridge the Funding Gap to Commercialize Cleantech Innovation https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/07/17/opportunities-bridge-funding-gap-commercialize-cleantech-innovation-insights-2019
Energy Storage in PJM https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/energy-storage-pjm
The Kleinman Center Explores Energy Storage https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/04/09/kleinman-center-explores-energy-storage
A Market for Primary Frequency Response? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/market-primary-frequency-response
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The Trump Administration has blamed the decline in America’s coal industry on a regulatory “war on coal.” Yet investor reaction to regulatory announcements doesn’t support that view.
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The U.S. coal industry has declined dramatically over the past decade, with output from the nation’s coal mines falling 35% from their peak. Today, coal-fired power plants generate just over a quarter of the nation’s electricity and have been surpassed by natural gas plants as the top source for electric power.
A variety of narratives have been put forth to explain coal’s decline. None has been more politically charged than the “war on coal” narrative, advanced by the Trump Administration, that places blame on a set of Obama-era federal policies to reduce the environmental impact of coal.
Guests Cary Coglianese, director of the Penn Program on Regulation and Dan Walters, Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State University, discuss new research that takes a close look at the impact of federal environmental regulation on the coal industry. The research focuses on the reaction of investors to major regulatory announcements, and the extent to which federal energy and environmental policies have colored investors’ view of the future viability of the coal industry.
Coglianese and Walter's report, Whither the Regulatory War on Coal? Scapegoats, Saviors and Stock Market Reactions, is available on the website of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
Cary Coglianese is director of the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Dan Walters is an Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State University whose work focuses on energy and environmental law. Previously Dan was a Regulation Fellow at the Penn Program on Regulation.
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Betting on Climate Solutions: Why We Should Spread Our Chips https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/betting-climate-solutions
Teeming with Carbon Taxes https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/08/12/teeming-carbon-taxes
As Clean Energy Surpasses Coal, U.S. Energy Transition Locks Into Place https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/07/08/clean-energy-surpasses-coal-us-energy-transition-locks-place
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Rafe Pomerance, an early campaigner for climate action and the subject of Nathaniel Rich’s book “Losing Earth,” discusses the increasingly pivotal role of climate change in U.S. electoral politics.
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Rafe Pomerance, a former Washington environmental lobbyist and subject of Nathaniel Rich’s recent book on climate change, Losing Earth, spent the 1980’s bringing global warming and the need for climate action to the attention of Washington lawmakers and the country at large. Those efforts were frustrated by the end of the decade, as deliberate misinformation campaigns distorted public understanding of climate science, and as pressure from the fossil fuel industry drove many politicians to reject climate policy.
Four decades later, Pomerance offers his view on the damage done by climate denialism, and a look at the options that remain today to minimize warming and its impacts. He also discusses his current work to turn climate change into a pivotal electoral issue in Florida, a state that is emerging as a bellwether for climate politics.
Rafe Pomerance is Chairman of Arctic 21, a network of organizations focused on climate policies impacting the Arctic, and consultant to ReThink Energy Florida. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Development under president Bill Clinton.
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Betting on Climate Solutions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/betting-climate-solutions
How the Democratic-Republican Climate Rift Became Political Reality https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/how-democratic-republican-climate-rift-became-political-reality
Don’t Let Climate Denial Distract Us https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/06/11/dont-let-climate-denial-distract-us
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Over the past half century Americans have become increasingly polarized over the issues of environment and climate change. A pioneer in the field of environmental sociology discusses how views on climate have become an essential element of party ideology, and what it means for the 2020 election.
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Climate change has emerged as a major issue in U.S. electoral politics and an early focus of debate among potential 2020 democratic presidential candidates. For a growing number of voters, climate action increasingly ranks in importance alongside traditional issues like healthcare, jobs and education.
Yet while a growing number of voters demand that candidates prioritize climate, the issue may also prove to be a political liability for candidates of all stripes in a nation where views on climate have become deeply entwined with social and political identities.
Pioneering environmental sociologist Riley Dunlap, Regents Professor at Oklahoma State University, takes a look at a half century of public dialogue over environment and climate in the United States. He shares insights into the genesis of the public divide over climate change, where the divide stands today, and how it might influence next year’s presidential election.
Riley Dunlap is Regents Professor at Oklahoma State University, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and former Chair of the American Sociological Association’s Task Force on Sociology and Global Climate Change.
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One Future, One Vote https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/05/06/one-future-one-vote
Report Highlights Three Paths for U.S. to Meet Paris Climate Target https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/06/04/report-highlights-three-paths-us-meet-paris-climate-target
Don’t Let Climate Denial Distract Us https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/06/11/dont-let-climate-denial-distract-us
Betting on Climate Solutions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/betting-climate-solutions
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Former NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane discusses four decades of failed efforts to find a permanent disposal solution for America’s civilian nuclear waste and new thinking, based on successful disposal efforts in the military and overseas, that could lead to a workable solution.
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There are 90,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste in temporary storage at sites across the United States. The waste is the responsibility of the federal government, which nearly four decades ago entered into an agreement with the nuclear power industry to collect and permanently dispose of spent reactor fuel. Yet today, after pouring billions of dollars into the mothballed Yucca Mountain disposal facility in Nevada, a solution to the country’s nuclear waste problem appears as distant as ever, while the nation’s nuclear waste stockpile continues to grow.
Allison Macfarlane, former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, explores the challenges, ranging from safety concerns to politics, that have foiled efforts to find a nuclear waste solution. She also discusses some new thinking, based in successful efforts to develop disposal abroad, that might make it possible to reach a permanent solution in the US.
Allison Macfarlane, former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under President Barack Obama, and now a professor of public and technology policy at George Washington University.
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Keeping Nuclear Power Plants Running is Vital to Meeting Climate Goals https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/25/keeping-nuclear-power-plants-running-vital-meeting-climate-goals
Clean Energy is an Investment, Not a Cost. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/05/07/clean-energy-investment-not-cost
Nuclear Decommissioning: Paying More for Greater, Uncompensated Risks https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/nuclear-decommissioning
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Climate attribution science allows connections to be made between extreme weather events and a warming climate. The science is also being used to trace climate change to the activities of specific industries and companies, potentially generating evidence to fuel climate litigation.
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A new scientific discipline, climate attribution science, is making connections between climate change and recent extreme weather events in the U.S. and around the globe. The science is emerging as a result of advances in computer power used to model weather and the climate, and as scientists have focused their efforts to understand the causes of increasingly frequent heat waves, droughts and flooding.
Guests Peter Frumhoff, chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University explore attribution science and the extent to which the cause and effect relationship between climate change and weather can in fact be understood. They also look at how attribution science can be used to trace the contribution to climate change of major greenhouse gas emitters, potentially creating new legal liability for industries and countries.
Peter Frumhoff is chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Michael Burger is Executive Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.
Related Content
Betting on Climate Solutions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/betting-climate-solutions
Why Carbon Pricing Falls Short https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/why-carbon-pricing-falls-short
Don’t Let Climate Denial Distract Us https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/06/11/dont-let-climate-denial-distract-us
Three Pathways to Uphold America’s Paris Commitment https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/three-pathways-uphold-americas-paris-commitment
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Can consumers take the lead in reducing U.S. carbon emissions in the absence of strong federal climate policy? New research takes a look at three aggressive pathways to meet the U.S.’ Paris goals.
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Regardless of the United States’ official intention to back out of the Paris Climate Accord, it’s a solid bet that at some point in the future the country will return to the global agreement, or something very much like it. The assertion is rooted in widespread efforts from states and local communities to uphold Paris commitments, and by recent polling that shows that a strong majority of Americans favor government action to address climate change.
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a nonpartisan think tank, has released a report defining scenarios under which the U.S. could reach it’s Paris goal to cut net greenhouse gas emissions 80% by the year 2050. Climate action scenarios are nothing new, but the center’s approach is unique in examining the sources of leadership that will drive down U.S. emissions.
Matthew Binsted, a report author with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Brad Townsend, Innovation Director for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions look at how the federal government, the states, and consumers might each take the lead in catalyzing aggressive carbon reductions. The path taken may have implications for America’s global economic competitiveness, and domestic economic and social equity.
Related Content
Betting on Climate Solutions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/betting-climate-solutions
Report Highlights Three Paths for U.S. to Meet Paris Climate Target. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/06/04/report-highlights-three-paths-us-meet-paris-climate-target
An Inside Look at the UN’s Effort to End Energy Poverty https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/inside-look-uns-effort-end-energy-poverty
Bold Climate Policy Is Coming. Investors, Take Note. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/bold-climate-policy-coming-investors-take-note
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Global demand for coal is on the rise, with dire implications for climate. A look at why coal use endures, and what might be done to limit its use.
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The International Energy Agency forecasts that global coal use will increase over the coming decade. Why is it that coal use persists, despite intensifying efforts of citizens, industry and governments to turn to cleaner alternatives?
Kleinman Center Senior Fellow Anna Mikulska, author of recently published policy paper The Long Goodbye: Why Some Nations Can’t Kick the Coal Habit, talks through the reasons that coal remains attractive, the drivers of growing global coal demand, and about policy solutions that may slow and reverse the trend.
Anna Mikulska is a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and Nonresident Scholar with the Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University.
Related Content:
The Long Good Bye – Why Some Nations Can’t Kick the Coal Habit
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/long-goodbye
Why Carbon Pricing Falls Short – And What to Do About It https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/why-carbon-pricing-falls-short
Targeting Net Zero Emissions
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/targeting-net-zero-emissions
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Former FERC Commissioner Colette Honorable discusses the FERC's challenging relationship with the states over clean energy subsidies and their potential impact on the nation’s electricity markets.
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates the United States’ wholesale natural gas and electricity markets, wielding influence over the cost of energy and the environmental impacts of the nation’s energy consumption. Today, the FERC finds itself at the center of intense debate over the extent to which environmental and climate concerns should factor in the shaping of the U.S. energy system.
Colette Honorable, a FERC commissioner from 2015 to 2017, discusses FERC’s struggle to balance clean energy development with the economic and supply considerations that have been the core of its regulatory mandate. Honorable also examines the growing tension between the states and the FERC around state efforts to subsidize nuclear and renewable energy, and over environmental review of the nation’s natural gas infrastructure.
In Part 1 of this two-part interview, released on April 30, 2019, Colette discussed FERC’s history and mandate.
Colette Honorable served as a FERC commissioner from 2015 to 2017. She is now a partner in the Energy and Natural Resources Group with the Reed Smith law firm in Washington DC.
Related Content
What’s the FERC, And How is it Shaping Our Energy Future? (Part 2). https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/whats-ferc-and-how-it-shaping-our-energy-future
Pennsylvania’s ZEC Bill Reveal. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/reconciling-subsidized-resources
A Market for Primary Frequency Response? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/market-primary-frequency-response
Reconciling Subsidized Resources In PJM’s Competitive Electricity Markets https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/reconciling-subsidized-resources
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Former FERC Commissioner Colette Honorable explains the work of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and its often contentious role in shaping the future of U.S. electricity and natural gas systems.
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Fundamental changes are taking place across the U.S. energy landscape. The growth of shale natural gas has changed the mix of fuels used to generate the nation’s electricity, with natural gas surpassing coal as the fuel of choice. At the same time, growing concern over climate change has incentivized the development of clean energy technologies and further altered the nation’s energy mix.
Yet rapid change has brought conflict, particularly between the states and the federal government over their respective roles in defining the future of our energy system. In the electricity sector, state efforts to support renewable and nuclear power threaten the integrity of electricity markets and federal authority to shape them. In the gas industry, federal regulators have approved a web of new pipelines to transport shale natural gas around the country, only to see some projects stall over state environmental and climate concerns.
Former FERC commissioner Colette Honorable discusses the government agency that finds itself at the center of many of today’s most critical energy debates. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, also known as the FERC, is charged with regulating the interstate commerce of natural gas and electricity. Its role extends from oversight of wholesale electricity markets to environmental review of natural gas pipelines.
This episode covers FERC, its history and mandate. The May 15, 2019 episode will take a closer look at the key debates now embroiling the Commission.
Colette Honorable served as a FERC commissioner from 2015 to 2017. She is now a partner in the Energy and Natural Resources Group with the Reed Smith law firm in Washington DC.
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Related Content
Pennsylvania’s ZEC Bill Reveal. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/reconciling-subsidized-resources
A Market for Primary Frequency Response? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/market-primary-frequency-response
Reconciling Subsidized Resources In PJM’s Competitive Electricity Markets https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/reconciling-subsidized-resources
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Rachel Kyte, a leader of the United Nation’s effort to eradicate energy poverty within a decade, discusses the challenge of providing universal energy access while limiting climate impacts.
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One billion people around the world live without access to electricity, and well over a third of the global population still relies on wood to cook its food. The lack of access to reliable and clean energy is a major barrier to improving human health and to driving economic growth in the world’s poorest areas.
In response to this challenge, the United Nations has set the goal of spreading access to electricity to every corner of the globe within little more than a decade. Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All, an organization focused on achieving the UN’s energy development goal, talks about the challenge of delivering universal access to electricity while addressing the climate impact that growing energy use might bring. She also takes a look at the challenges to financing energy transition on a global scale.
Rachel Kyte is Chief Executive Officer and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, and a Co-Chair of UN-Energy.
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The Long Goodbye: Why Some Nations Can’t Kick the Coal Habithttps://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/long-goodbye
Climate Goes Mainstream https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/02/19/climate-goes-mainstream
Dispelling a National Emergency Declaration on Climate https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/02/06/dispelling-national-emergency-declaration-climate
Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/01/23/geopolitics-global-energy-transition
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Much faith is being put in the ability of negative emissions technologies to slow the pace of climate change. Glen Peters of Norway’s Center for International Climate Research looks at the potential of negative emissions strategies, and the steep challenges to implementing them.
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The goal of the Paris Climate Accord is to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the point beyond which the impacts of climate change are feared to be most severe and enduring. Staying below the 2 degree limit will require two complementary strategies. The first, mitigation, is now familiar, and involves limiting carbon dioxide emissions today by turning to cleaner energy and greater energy efficiency.
The second strategy is equally important in limiting future climate impacts, yet has received much less attention in public dialogue and policy circles. Negative emissions doesn’t yet exist in any practical sense, yet it will be counted upon to remove decades worth of carbon dioxide emissions from Earth’s atmosphere by the end of this century.
At their best, negative emissions technologies will play a vital role in holding climate change in check. But the technologies may also give us a false sense of security that today’s carbon emissions can reversed at some point in the future.
Glen Peters, research director at the Center for International Climate Research (CICERO) in Oslo, Norway, takes a close look at negative emissions, from their potential to the political and economic challenges that need to be overcome if they’re to have a meaningful impact on the climate.
Glen Peters is Research Director at the Center for International Climate Research (CICERO) in Oslo, Norway. His work focuses on the human drivers of climate change and international climate policy.
Related Content
Targeting Net Zero Emissions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/targeting-net-zero-emissions
Negative Emissions Won’t Rescue Us From Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/11/08/negative-emissions-wont-rescue-us-climate-change
Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/01/23/geopolitics-global-energy-transition
Can the U.S. Meet Green New Deal Emissions Targets? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/02/27/can-us-meet-green-new-deal-emissions-targets
The Inevitable Policy Response Theory https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/10/03/inevitable-policy-response-theory
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The current energy transition is fraught with economic and social implications, not to mention abundant political squabbles. An economist looks at the past 200 years of global energy history and finds that difficult transitions are nothing new.
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The world faces an urgent need to transform energy systems toward cleaner, renewable fuels. Yet as challenging as the current energy transformation is, it’s worth noting that we’ve been through such momentous changes before. Over 250 years ago in England, coal fueled the start of the industrial revolution, opening the way to new economic growth and technological development that spread to many parts of the world.
In this episode an economist explores the extent to which energy has come to underpin modern economies, and how energy resources of all types have become inseparable from our everyday lives.
Jesús Fernández-Villaverdeis a professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also author of an upcoming book on global economic history, with a major focus on the role of energy in economic development.
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Norway is pursuing a future rich in fossil energy and climate solutions. Can its oil company, Equinor, reconcile these priorities and continue to reliably finance the country’s expansive social welfare system? Equinor’s Clean Energy Chief weighs in.
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Much has been made of Norway’s efforts to address climate change. The country has set the goal of going carbon neutral by the middle of the century, and generates nearly all of its electricity from hydropower. Norway’s ambitious environmental policies have even transformed the country’s car market, where EVs now account for half of new car sales.
Yet the country remains economically dependent on its fossil fuel industry, which provides key revenue for the government and its generous social welfare programs.
Much of Norway’s fossil fuel wealth comes from a single company, state-controlled Equinor, which has produced oil and gas from North Sea wells for half a century, and is now diversifying beyond fossil fuels. Equinor opened the world’s first commercial floating offshore wind farm in 2017, and is developing a carbon capture and storage business.
Stephen Bull, Equinor’s Senior Vice President for Wind and Low Carbon Development, discusses Equinor’s efforts beyond fossil fuels and how the Norwegian government, which is environmentally progressive yet dependent on oil wealth, is driving the company. He also talks about the inherent conflict of interest when a fossil fuel company pursues non-fossil energy alternatives.
Stephen Bull, Senior Vice President for Wind and Low Carbon Development at Equinor, and Chairman of RenewableUK, a renewable energy trade association.
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Targeting Net Zero Emissions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/targeting-net-zero-emissions
U.S. Offshore Wind Power https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/us-offshore-wind-power
U.S. Offshore Wind Industry Arrives (Podcast) https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/us-offshore-wind-industry-arrives
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Bipartisan carbon pricing proposals have started to appear at the national level, which begs a question: what’s the right price for carbon? An advisor to California and RGGI carbon markets offers insights.
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Over the past two years the idea of putting a price on carbon has gathered new and often unexpected support from across the political spectrum. In 2017 a group of former Republican leaders offered up a proposal for a national carbon tax. This January, top economists including all of the living former Federal Reserve Chairs pledged their support for such a plan on the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal.
While Congress has remained polarized, carbon pricing proposals have recently emerged from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. And oil companies such as Exxon and Shell now publicly support a carbon price.
Guest Dallas Burtraw, an advisor to carbon cap and trade programs in California and the Eastern U.S., discusses one of the most challenging and controversial aspects facing any effort to price carbon: getting the carbon price right. When done correctly, carbon pricing can speed greenhouse emissions reductions and fuel economic growth. Yet carbon cap and trade markets, which have been operating for over a decade in Europe and the US, have at times struggled with pricing, highlight the challenges likely to face future carbon pricing efforts.
Dallas Burtraw is Chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee and a senior fellow with Resources for the Future. He is also a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
Related Content:
The Inevitable Policy Response Theory https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/10/03/inevitable-policy-response-theory
Climate Policy Won’t Work Without Considering Labor. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/17/climate-policy-wont-work-without-considering-labor
Lessons from a Decade of Cap & Trade https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/lessons-decade-cap-trade
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China is aggressively expanding its electric vehicle industry, with the aim of becoming a leader in the global automotive market.
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China produces as many electric vehicles as the rest of the world combined, the result of aggressive government policies to boost EV demand and manufacturing.
The push to electrify is part of China’s broader effort to control air pollution in its cities, where car ownership has risen dramatically. In a concerted effort, the government has invested heavily in the development of EV technologies, established sales quotas, and offered incentives to make EVs affordable. Today, China has also become the world’s dominant maker of EV batteries, the most valuable component in any electric car, and its global automotive ambitions have grown.
John Paul MacDuffie of the Wharton School of Business takes a closer look at the ambitious environmental and industrial policies that have enabled the growth of China’s electric vehicle industry. He also discusses how China’s EV manufacturing scale, rooted in environmental policies, might upend traditional hierarchies in the global automotive industry.
John Paul MacDuffie is Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Director of the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation, a global automotive research consortium.
Related Content:
EVs Mean Growth for These Businesses
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/11/02/evs-mean-growth-these-businesses
The Case for Electrifying California’s Cars https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/01/23/case-electrifying-californias-cars
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Congress has played down climate change while demanding that the Pentagon tackle climate-related security risks. A former DoD environmental lawyer looks at military efforts to address climate, and political mine fields along the way.
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When one thinks of major security threats to the United States it’s pretty standard to conjure up images of hostile foreign armies or terrorist groups. Yet over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense has increasingly recognized climate change as a source of global political instability, with the potential to displace populations and give rise to armed conflict.
Climate change also challenges the military’s preparedness, as weather extremes, wildfires and flooding threaten military bases here and abroad. In January, the Defense Department released a report that found that two-thirds of the critical military installations it surveyed have suffered damage or operational disruptions linked to climate risks.
Yet, while the Pentagon has increasingly taken climate into account, in public it has been relatively quiet on the issue under a president and Congress that have largely opposed climate action.
Guest Mark Nevitt, a Penn Law lecturer and former U.S. Navy pilot and attorney who served as the Department of Defense regional environmental counsel in Norfolk, Virginia, discusses the risks that climate change poses to military installations, and the touchy intersection of climate politics and national security.
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Texas Sea Wall Shows Inadequate Disclosure on Climate Risk
Beating the Authoritarian Playbook on Climate Change. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/08/15/beating-authoritarian-playbook-climate-change
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Mankind’s impact on Earth extends well beyond climate change to the broader biosphere, where the conditions that nurtured the development of modern humans are at risk of being lost in a new epoch known as the Anthropocene.
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Climate change makes headline news, but mankind's changes to planet Earth go well beyond rising temperatures. In this episode of Energy Policy Now prominent earth system scientist Will Steffen explores the dawn of a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, where the systems of sea, land, and air will be unlike those experienced in human history.
The term Anthropocene, coined less than two decades ago, emphasizes the rising influence of humans on earth system processes, and our emerging role as the dominant force shaping Earth’s biologic and geologic systems. Steffen looks at the political and economic systems that have accelerated man’s impact on Earth since the middle of the 20th century, and at the role of technology and policy in slowing global change.
Will Steffen is emeritus professor at the Australian National University, former executive director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and a former member of the Australian government’s Climate Commission.
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A group of investors that manages $80 trillion in assets forecasts bold policy action on climate by the mid-2020s. What will such action mean for capital markets and economies?
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Principles for Responsible Investment, a London-based organization focused on socially responsible investment, has introduced a dramatic vision of a global response to climate change. PRI, which is supported by the United Nations and a consortium of global investors, believes that by the middle of the next decade national governments will be compelled to take major policy actions to address climate change.
The shift, which PRI calls the Inevitable Policy Response, will fundamentally reorient the global economy and drive investment away from industries that are dependent on fossil fuels, and toward less carbon intensive activities. The policy shift will come quickly, disrupting financial markets, and overriding the assumption that industry and economies will have time to gradually adapt to the pricing of climate risks.
Nathan Fabian, Chief Responsible Investment Officer with PRI, discusses the drivers, timing and economic impacts of an expected shift in climate policy.
Nathan Fabian is Chief Responsible Investment Officer with Principles for Responsible Investment in London, UK.
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The Inevitable Policy Response Theory https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/10/03/inevitable-policy-response-theory
Climate Policy Won’t Work Without Considering Labor https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/17/climate-policy-wont-work-without-considering-labor
Texas Sea Wall Shows Inadequate Disclosure on Climate Risk https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/08/28/texas-sea-wall-shows-inadequate-disclosure-climate-risk
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Vox writer David Roberts weighs in on the media’s role in shaping views on energy and the environment.
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Vox Media’s David Roberts is one of the nation’s top energy and environmental journalists, and now also a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
In this episode of Energy Policy Now, Roberts discusses the media’s coverage of the politicized issues of energy and climate and the challenge of being heard in a noisy and splintered media environment. He also talks about what it’s like to live and breathe energy from dawn to dusk (and beyond).
David Roberts is an energy and environmental writer with Vox, and a senior fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
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Climate Policy Won’t Work Without Considering Labor https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/17/climate-policy-wont-work-without-considering-labor
California: The Climate Leadership We Need https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/13/california-climate-leadership-we-need
The Climate Under Kavanaugh. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/11/climate-under-kavanaugh
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Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of railways and coal and past minister of renewable energy, discusses his country’s efforts to provide universal electricity access while limiting power sector pollution and climate impact.
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India is home to the world’s most ambitious electrification effort. By the spring of 2019, India’s government aims to connect the 30 million rural Indian homes that remain without power to the electric grid, as part of its broader effort to raise living standards and promote economic development. By 2030, India’s demand for electricity will triple as its cities and middle class grow.
New demand for electricity will be met by a mix of new renewable generation and coal-fired power. Emissions will rise as a result, highlighting the challenge India’s government faces in addressing air pollution and climate impacts at the same time it strives to eliminate energy poverty.
In this episode of Energy Policy Now, Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of railways, coal, and corporate affairs, discusses the potentially conflicting aims of providing universal electricity access and addressing environmental challenges. Until 2017, Goyal was minister of power, coal, new and renewable energy.
Piyush Goyal has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the Kleinman Center’s annual Carnot Prize in recognition of his contributions to energy policy. He will officially receive the prize in New Delhi.
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This Year’s Carnot Prize Honors Courage Amidst Complexity https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/07/30/years-carnot-prize-honors-courage-amidst-complexity
India’s Now or Never Climate Opportunity
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/indias-now-or-never-climate-opportunity
Negative Emissions Won’t Rescue Us From Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/11/08/negative-emissions-wont-rescue-us-climate-change
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As Washington relaxes standards governing methane leaks, oil and gas industry leaders pledge to limit emissions. An economist and an environmental advocate examine the impact of methane leaks and the credibility of industry efforts to contain them.
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In September, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior pushed forward two separate regulations that will, in effect, hold oil and gas companies less accountable for methane gas emissions into the atmosphere. The new rules ease requirements that energy companies detect and repair methane leaks from wells and pipelines. The Interior rule, which has gone into effect, and the EPA rule, which is now open for 60-days of public comment, are part of a series of Trump administration efforts to undo methane regulations that the same agencies had written during the Obama administration.
The agencies acknowledge that the looser regulations will have a negative climate impact. Methane is a greenhouse gas that can be 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Yet the current administration maintains that the Obama-era rules would place undue economic burden on energy companies, while many energy companies say that they’re already acting to reduce emissions, and the stricter rules are duplicative.
Guests Catherine Hausman, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and Ben Ratner of the Environmental Defense Fund, discuss the economic and environmental costs of methane emissions, and how estimates of these costs tend to vary widely. Hausman and Ratner also discuss why methane emissions are so hard to detect, explore initiatives to both speed and lower the cost of containing leaks, and look at whether industry’s voluntary efforts to reduce emissions are enough.
Catherine Hausman is a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center, and an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, where she focuses on environmental and energy economics.
Ben Ratner is a Senior Director at the Environmental Defense Fund, based in Washington DC, where he focuses on collaborating with businesses on cleaner energy.
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The Hubbub About Gas Storage Levels https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/10/15/hubbub-about-gas-storage-levels
Fighting Climate Change and the Social Cost of Carbon
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/fighting-climate-change-and-social-cost-carbon
How a Deepening Natural Gas Market Affects Europe https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/06/how-deepening-natural-gas-market-affects-europe
Carbon Capture’s Clean Coal Ambition
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/carbon-captures-clean-coal-ambition
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IPCC lead climate author Oliver Geden talks about how politicians view the IPCC’s 1.5 degree report, and implications for climate action.
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On October 8ththe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees. The report describes expected environmental, economic and social impacts brought by 1.5 degrees Celsius of climate warming, and the actions that need to be taken on a global scale to limit warming to that level.
The report’s timing is crucial, as it comes ahead of this December’s global climate meeting in Katowice, Poland, where nations that signed onto the Paris Climate Accord will establish the rules that will guide them in reaching their climate commitments. The IPCC’s report serves as a guide to how much countries might be able to limiting warming. Yet at the same time, the report highlights the unprecedented effort that would be required to hold to the 1.5 degree target.
Oliver Geden, a lead author of the IPCC’s next major report on climate change, discusses the implications of the IPCC report for policymakers and for the upcoming UN Climate Summit.
Oliver Geden is Head of the Europe Research Division at the German Institute for International Security Affairs in Berlin, which advises the German government and European Union on international policy issues. He is also a recent visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. Geden is a lead author the IPCC’s 6thAssessment Report on climate, due in 2022.
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Climate Policy Won’t Work Without Considering Labor https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/17/climate-policy-wont-work-without-considering-labor
Power Over the Twenty-First Century Electric Grid https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/power-over-twenty-first-century-electric-grid
Comparative Pathways Interim Report https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/comparative-pathways-interim-report
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Natural Gas fuels a third of the nation’s electricity generation, and the strong economics of natural gas are likely to cause its use to widen its use in years to come. Yet the growing reliance on natural gas may increase the risk of electricity supply disruption should pipelines fail due to severe weather, or physical and cyber attacks.
States, federal government and electricity market operators are well aware of this vulnerability, but differ in how immediate they view threats to gas networks to be, and whether they believe regulators should dictate preventive action.
Kleinman Center Senior Fellow and grid cybersecurity expert Bill Hederman talks about the growing dependence of the electric grid on natural gas, and the implications of gas pipeline vulnerability to the reliability and resilience of the electric grid.
Listen to the companion podcast episode on state and federal action to address cyber risk, Grid Resilience in the Cyber Age.
Bill Hederman is a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center and founder of the Office of Market Oversight and Investigations at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
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Grid Resilience in the Cyber Age: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/grid-resilience-cyber-age
New FERC Rule Grows Clean Energy’s Role in Grid Resilience https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/02/21/new-ferc-rule-grows-clean-energys-role-grid-resilience
Distributed Energy’s Cyber Risk
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/distributed-energy’s-cyber-risk
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The electricity industry has taken advantage of network communications technologies to deliver power more efficiently and reliably. But as information technology becomes interwoven into the electricity system, the industry has also become more vulnerable to cyber attack. In recent years, hackers have gained access to utility customer information and to energy control systems, and may ultimately threaten to disrupt power delivery itself.
Gladys Brown, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and head of the Critical Infrastructure Committee at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), talks about cyber risk and electric grid resilience. She also looks at current efforts involving state and federal regulators, and agencies such as the Department of Homeland security, to ensure electricity supply as cyber risks proliferate.
Gladys Brown is Chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. She also leads the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioner’s Critical Infrastructure Committee, a forum where state utility commissioners examine grid security risks and best practices.
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New FERC Rule Grows Clean Energy’s Role in Grid Resilience https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/02/21/new-ferc-rule-grows-clean-energys-role-grid-resilience
Distributed Energy’s Cyber Risk
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/distributed-energy’s-cyber-risk
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Policymakers increasingly face the challenge of deciding on pathways to mitigate and address the impacts of climate change, yet no clear view exists into the impacts of rising temperatures, changing weather patterns, and the timing of sea level rise. And, as we enter unprecedented climate territory, past climate patterns offer an ever less reliable view of the future. As a result, leaders in government and industry can be wary of making bold investments necessary to address a changing climate.
Mark Alan Hughes, founding Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center, discusses an emerging area of decision science that aims to provide decision makers with tools that may help them to better account for climate uncertainty, potentially freeing them to make the investments needed to transform energy systems and address climate impacts.
Mark Alan Hughes is founding Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center at Penn. Mark leads the center’s Pathways Project, which seeks practical solutions to the challenge of decision making under deep uncertainty (DMDU).
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Comparative Pathways Interim Report https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/comparative-pathways-interim-report
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In August the Environmental Protection Agency revealed its replacement for the Clean Power Plan, the Obama-era regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power industry. The replacement plan, championed by current EPA acting administrator Andrew Wheeler with backing from President Trump, does away with broad carbon emissions reduction targets for the electricity industry.
Instead, the proposed regulation, called the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, or ACE, would require only that existing coal plants become more energy efficient. The result is likely to be modest reductions in carbon emissions, at best, from the electricity sector, while the lives of some coal plants could be extended.
Joseph Goffman, a principle architect of the (original) Clean Power Plan during the Obama Administration, weighs in on the litany of legal challenges to ACE that are sure to come, and whether the EPA in fact has the legal latitude to weaken the very carbon dioxide standards that it had deemed essential to limiting climate change, and protecting human health, just a few years ago. Joe also discusses legal challenges facing the EPA’s current, parallel effort to relax automotive emission standards.
Joseph Goffman is Executive Director of the Environmental Law Program at Harvard University. From 2009 to 2017, he served as Senior Legal Counsel in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.
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Not an ACE for Coal: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/08/22/not-ace-coal
Reimagining Pennsylvania’s Coal Communities: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/reimagining-pennsylvanias-coal-communities
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After a decade of false starts, the U.S. offshore wind industry is poised for real growth. The Chief of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s renewables office takes a look at offshore wind’s future. --- After years of high hopes but little development, the U.S. offshore wind industry finally seems poised for growth following a series of major offshore project announcements this year. In May and June, the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut selected a combined 1,400 MW of offshore wind projects for contract negotiation. When complete, they’ll generate enough electricity to power 200,000 homes and help the states meet their clean energy and climate goals. The projects are all the more noteworthy given that there is currently just a single, small offshore wind farm operating in U.S. waters. Guest Jim Bennett heads the Office of Renewable Energy Programs at the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and is the individual charged with overseeing the federal government’s involvement in developing the United States’ offshore renewable energy resources. Bennett offers his insights into what’s driving recent investment in US offshore wind energy, the challenges to offshore wind development, and the potential for the offshore industry to become a vital, economically competitive source of clean electricity. Also featured is Brandon Burke, Brandon Burke, an attorney, offshore wind researcher, and soon to be master’s graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. Related Content Tilting at Windmills https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/tilting-windmills New FERC Rule Grows Clean Energy’s Role in Grid Resilience https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/02/21/new-ferc-rule-grows-clean-energys-role-grid-resilience Clean Energy Costs Continue to Fall https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/01/22/clean-energy-costs-continue-fall
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Fresh water resources are becoming scarce even as water demand from cities, industry and agriculture rises. Can seemingly inevitable conflicts over water, and their environmental consequences, be avoided? --- Access to fresh water has become an immediate concern in the United States. In recent years, unprecedented droughts have gripped central and western parts of the country, even as demand for water to supply cities, industry and farming has grown. And competition for water has led to a history of conflict between the states. Most recently in June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in a decades-long legal battle between Georgia and Florida over the right to water from a river system that is vital to the city of Atlanta and, downstream, to oyster fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet the court’s ruling leaves the conflict unresolved, a result that reflects the intractability of so many fights over waterway control over the years. New research from Kleinman Center senior fellow Scott Moore suggests, counterintuitively, that water scarcity itself is often not the driving force behind water wars. Instead, a host of political and social factors often drive conflict. Moore discusses his new book on water conflict, Subnational Hydropolitics: Conflict, Cooperation and Institution-Building in Shared River Basins, and how understanding of political and social roots of water conflict can help government and communities find solutions, with positive outcomes for communities and the environment. Scott Moore is a senior fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and a Water Resource Specialist with the World Bank’s Global Water Practice. Related Content: Sea Change: Desalination and the Water-Energy Nexus. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/sea-change Water, Waste, Energy: Lessons from Coca-Cola in Africa https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/water-waste-energy
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President Trump has acted to boost fossil fuel development in the U.S. But market forces, and disruptive trade policies have more than offset the administration’s pro-oil and coal efforts. --- In his year and a half in office, President Donald Trump has acted to make good on his campaign promises to grow the U.S. oil, natural gas, and coal industries during his presidency. Trump has taken a series of actions aimed at reducing environmental oversight of fossil fuel producers and opening protected federal territory to new energy development. Yet the ability of the president, and of Washington, to open the door to new fossil energy production has its limits. Market forces—energy supply, demand and pricing—often play the leading role in an energy company's decision to drill new resources. At the same time, state-level energy regulations are often at odds with federal priorities. Energy policy and market experts Anna Mikulska and Michael Maher discuss the president’s strategy to assert global energy dominance, and how the strategy has been reflected in recent investment trends in U.S. oil, gas, and coal. Anna Mikulska is a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and a non-resident fellow with the Baker Institute for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Her work focuses on the interplay between energy markets and policy. Michael Maher is senior program adviser at the Baker Institute's Center for Energy Studies. He focuses on U.S. energy policy related to oil and gas production and safety, offshore drilling, and LNG exports. Related Content The (Yet?) Non-existent Pipeline that Already Divides Europe https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/04/11/yet-non-existent-pipeline-already-divides-europe Reimagining Pennsylvania’s Coal Communities https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/reimagining-pennsylvanias-coal-communities Ending Fossil Fuel Tax Subsidies https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/ending-fossil-fuel-tax-subsidies
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In the coming years 1.6 million acres of formerly protected Alaskan wilderness will be the site of new oil exploration and drilling. Can the state balance energy development and its environmental heritage? --- In December the Trump Administration opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy development, as part of the administration’s tax reform package. The opening was the culmination of a decades-long battle, fought at federal and state levels, to gain access to possibly 10 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves in an area that is also home to some of the United States’ greatest wildlife populations. The move is part of the Trump administration’s plan to increase oil output and achieve its stated goal of global energy dominance. For Alaska, new development has the potential to accelerate a recent uptick in Alaskan oil production that follows nearly three decades of declining output. Energy Policy Now guest Lois Epstein, Arctic Program Director with the Wilderness Society in Alaska, discusses how the opening of ANWR is the latest chapter in a long history of energy development in Alaska, and looks at the historic the tie between the state’s economy and the oil industry’s fortunes. A 17-year resident of the state, she provides her perspective on the way that Alaskans view their relationship to energy and environment, and how the often competing priorities of energy development, budgets and environment are being weighed as a potential new wave of oil development in ecologically sensitive areas looms. Lois Epstein is Arctic Program Director with the Wilderness Society in Alaska. Her work focuses on the safety and environmental impact of Arctic oil and gas operations. A licensed engineer, Epstein has served on a number of federal advisory committees, including two National Academy of Sciences committees studying oil and gas regulations. She has also testified more than a dozen times on energy and environmental issues before the U.S. House and Senate. Related Content The World Bank Moves Away from Fossil Fuels: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/12/19/world-bank-moves-away-fossil-fuels Unpacking IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2017: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/11/27/unpacking-iea’s-world-energy-outlook-2017
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A number of states are pushing legislation that would require 100% renewable energy supply. But challenges ranging from high costs to the duck curve could make such targets hard to reach. --- A number of states are taking it upon themselves to lower carbon emissions by adopting aggressive clean energy targets. In states like California, Washington, and Massachusetts, lawmakers are considering legislation requiring utilities to get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources. California already generates two-thirds of its power from renewables on peak days, while in Iowa, wind produces a third of the state’s overall electricity. Yet as renewable energy grows in popularity, the falling costs that helped fuel growth can get turned on their head, and overall costs can begin to rise. At the same time, the incremental environmental benefits of renewables can diminish as more wind and solar connect to the grid. Guest Karl Hausker, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center and author of the Risky Business Project report “From Risk to Return, Investing in a Clean Energy Economy,” looks at the pathway to widespread renewable energy with an eye on likely economic and political challenges along the way. Karl Hausker is a senior fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and a senior fellow with the World Resources Institute’s Global Climate program. Related Content: Power Over the Twenty-First Century Electric Grid https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/power-over-twenty-first-century-electric-grid Energy Storage in PJM. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/energy-storage-pjm FERC Clean Energy Policy Roundup. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/03/29/ferc-clean-energy-policy-roundup
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As distributed energy grows, so does cyber risk to the grid. Two energy security experts discuss solutions. --- In recent months the threat of cyber attack on the nation’s electricity system has come into urgent focus. Earlier this year the FBI and Department of Homeland Security made public a series of cyberattacks that penetrated the control systems of several nuclear power stations. Another recent attack on a network of natural gas pipelines threatened fuel supply to gas-fired powerplants in the Eastern U.S. And both breaches came in the wake of a 2015 cyberattack on three Ukrainian electric utilities that left more than 200,000 people without power. Yet even as awareness of cyber threats has risen, vulnerability to such attacks continues to grow. At the distribution level, behind the meter technologies like rooftop solar, battery storage and demand response make the electric system more efficient, but also provide attackers with new points of entry into an electric system that was, by and large, built without cyberthreats in mind. Cybersecurity experts Bill Hederman and Steve Kunsman discuss the cyber vulnerabilities of the electric distribution system, and political and technological means of addressing cyber risk. Guest Bill Hederman is a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and a former senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy of during the Obama administration. He was also founder of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Market Oversight and Investigations. Steve Kunsman is Chairman of the Cyber Security Subcommittee at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is also Director of Product Management and Applications at ABB North America. Related Content: Big Advance for Cybersecurity Also Important for Energy Cybersecurity https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/11/15/big-advance-cybersecurity-also-important-energy-cybersecurity The Energy Sector Confronts Cyber Risk https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/energy-sector-confronts-cyber-risk
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What might the EPA look like without current Administrator Scott Pruitt? Two regulatory experts discuss the future direction of the agency. --- EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has come under bipartisan fire for an array of ethical missteps that range from lavish spending on travel to the granting of illegal pay raises for select EPA staffers. Over the past week, staunch Pruitt supporters such as Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso have questioned the transparency with which Pruitt has run his office, and legislators from both sides of the aisle have suggested that Pruitt may not be fit to lead the agency. Could Pruitt’s tenure at the EPA be coming to an end? And if so, what direction might the embattled agency take under new leadership, such as that of recently confirmed Deputy EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler? In this special episode of Energy Policy Now, Penn Law energy and environment legal experts Cary Coglianese and Daniel Walters discuss the swirl of possible ethical violations that have led to the Pruitt controversy. They explore what Pruitt's departure could mean for his efforts—and those of the Trump administration—to deprioritize environmental protection at the EPA and roll back environmental regulations. Cary Coglianese is the Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and the founding director of the Penn Program on Regulation at Penn Law. Daniel Walters is a Regulation Fellow with the Penn Program on Regulation at Penn Law. Related Content: The Future of the EPA and Clean Power https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/future-epa-and-clean-power The Many Fronts of Trump’s Environmental Deregulation Effort https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/many-fronts-trumps-environmental-deregulation-effort Hot Topics on Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/hot-topics-climate-change
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How far can the states go in implementing climate regulations against Washington’s will? Two regulatory experts discuss the legal limits to local climate action. --- Over the past 15 months the Trump administration has moved to eliminate or water down a host of environmental regulations tied to energy use. The administration has rejected the Clean Power Plan, sought to relax rules that limit methane emissions from oil and gas wells, and announced that it will lower national car and truck fuel economy standards. Simultaneously, the federal government has been working to counter state and municipal efforts to strengthen local environmental rules. And recently, concern has been raised that the Environmental Protection Agency, under Secretary Scott Pruitt, might try rescind the waiver that allows California to set its own automotive emissions standards. Cary Coglianese of the Penn Program on Regulation, and Shana Starobin of Bowdoin College, discuss the legal limits to state and municipal efforts to take climate action, and at the tools Washington can use to rein in local regulations. Cary Coglianese is a professor of law and political science at the Penn Law, and Director of the Penn Program on Regulation. Shana Starobin is an assistant professor of government and environmental studies at Bowdoin College and a former fellow at the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Related Content: A City Blazes its Clean Energy Trail: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/city-blazes-its-clean-energy-trail
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As sea levels rise, nuisance flooding is the first wave of assault on coastal cities. Can we protect our coasts from inundation, or is retreat inevitable? --- Jeff Goodell, author of the New York Times award-winning book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, talks about the impact of rising seas on America’s coastal centers in the decades to come. Will innovative engineering allow cities and towns to be protected, and at what cost? Or, will the seas prevail, leaving some areas abandoned? Billy Fleming, research director for the Ian L. McHarg Center at the Penn School of Design and an expert on climate adaptation planning, weighs in as well. The U.S. government estimates that sea levels will rise by two feet by the middle of this century due to a warming climate. Already the impact of higher water is being felt in points around the country. In many coastal communities, nuisance flooding has become the predictable norm. Miami Beach is spending half a billion dollars to elevate roads and install pumps in an effort to stay dry. And Houston, New York, and New Orleans, all cities that are just feet above sea level, have recently seen unprecedented and devastating flooding. Goodell and Fleming look at the political and human costs of taking action. Jeff Goodell is a contributing editor with Rolling Stone magazine, where his writing focuses on environmental and climate issues. Last year he published his sixth book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, which earned a Critics’ Top Book award from the New York Times. Billy Fleming is research director for the Ian L. McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design. His research focuses on climate adaptation planning along the U.S. coast. Related Content Water Issues in California https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/water-issues-california Hot Topics on Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/hot-topics-climate-change
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Carbon Cap and Trade is gaining momentum, most recently with China’s plan to build the largest carbon market. But how successful has cap and trade been in limiting emissions, and what can new markets learn from past mistakes? --- Carbon cap and trade has made headlines in recent months as governments turn to carbon markets to limit greenhouse emissions. The biggest announcement came in December, when China formally announced the establishment of a national carbon trading system that will initially cover its electric power industry. Once China’s market is up and running, it’ll dwarf the largest existing cap and trade market, the European Emissions Trading System that started in 2005. Developments are underway in the U.S. as well. In January, New Jersey announced that it will rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, commonly called RGGI, which it had previously abandoned. And Virginia has announced its intention to also join the carbon market, which spans nine northeastern states. Kleinman Center Faculty Fellow Arthur van Benthem discusses how cap and trade cost-effectively limits carbon dioxide emissions. He also examines the economic competitiveness of cap-and-trade programs. Arthur van Benthem is a Faculty Fellow with the Kleinman Center and Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School of Business. His research and teaching focus on the economic efficiency of energy policies, and the unintended consequences of environmental legislation. Earlier, he worked as an economist and strategist at Royal Dutch Shell. Related Content China Introduces Emissions Trading System. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/12/21/china-introduces-emissions-trading-system Hot Topics on Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/hot-topics-climate-change Climate Policy in a Disorganized World https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/climate-policy-disorganized-world
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Self-driving trucks promise to revitalize the trucking industry. But increased energy demand and air pollution are possible downsides. --- Self-driving technology is making its way onto America's roads. Companies including Lyft, Ford and Google's Waymo are investing heavily to develop driverless vehicles and transportation services. Driverless technology is also being developed for the trucking industry, a cornerstone of the economy that moves 70% of manufactured goods yet finds itself challenged by high fuel costs, safety concerns, and a shortage of drivers. Guest Steve Viscelli, Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center, looks at the potential for driverless trucks to stake their claim on the nation's highways and create a more efficient transportation system. He also talks about potential impacts that vast fleets of driverless trucks may have on energy demand, air quality, and traffic congestion, and the choices policy makers face in balancing these outcomes. Steve Viscelli is a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center and a lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Sociology, where he researches policy in the areas of energy efficiency and employment relations. Steve also worked as a truck driver while researching his 2016 book, The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream. Related Content Stalled: Make Big Trucks More Fuel Efficient https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/stalled-make-big-trucks-more-fuel-efficient
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Nuclear power plants pump millions of dollars into local economies. As the rate of nuclear retirements accelerates, will surrounding communities find a way forward? -- A growing number of U.S. nuclear power plants are threatened with early retirement as the combination of rising operating costs, and low electricity prices, have eroded the nuclear industry's profits. The reactors are often the economic life blood of the mostly rural communities where they're located. When they close, many good paying jobs, and generous funding for school and community services disappear. And, unlike most one-company towns, nuclear host communities are burdened with a legacy of nuclear waste that can create barriers to redevelopment. Guests Jennifer Stromsten, Program Director with the Institute of Nuclear Host Communities, and Saqib Rahim, an E&E News reporter who's written extensively on nuclear plant closures, discuss community efforts to navigate the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear station in southern Vermont. They also look at the impact that the ongoing storage of nuclear waste at the site is having on efforts to redevelop, and initiatives at the state and national level to give communities more say in the decommissioning process and, by extension, control over their path forward. Jennifer Stromsten is Program Director with the Institute of Nuclear Host Communities and works for the economic development agency that serves the region surrounding Entergy Corporation's Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The plant closed in 2014 and is now in the process of decommissioning. Saqib Rahim is a reporter with E&E News who has written at length about Vermont Yankee and the legacy of nuclear plant closures. Related Content: Nuclear Decommissioning: Paying More for Greater, Uncompensated Risks: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/nuclear-decommissioning A Clean Grid is a Diverse Grid https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/clean-grid-diverse-grid
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Today's electric grid will need to be reimagined to deliver carbon-free power. MIT's Jesse Jenkins talks about what a deeply decarbonized electricity system might look like, and how to build it at lowest cost. --- In its 2014 report on global warming, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that carbon dioxide emissions must fall by as much as 70% by mid century to avoid the most "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage from climate change. A key to reducing carbon emissions will be the near complete decarbonization of the global electricity system, which is today's largest source of greenhouse gasses, and remains largely dependent on fossil fuels. Kleinman Center Visiting Scholar Jesse Jenkins discusses the economics of building a 'deeply decarbonized' electricity system. Jesse, and a group of MIT engineers, have modeled future electricity systems to determine the mix of low carbon energy resources that will create tomorrow's most resilient, cost-effective, and low-carbon electricity systems. Their research is currently working its way through peer review and will be released later this year. Jesse Jenkins is a researcher with the Electric Power Systems Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is former Director of the Breakthrough Institute's Energy and Climate Program, where he led research into energy, climate change and innovation policy. Related Content: Solar Industry Growth Set to Slow: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/01/23/solar-industry-growth-set-slow Clean Energy Costs Continue to Fall: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/01/22/clean-energy-costs-continue-fall Climate Policy in a Disorganized World: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/climate-policy-disorganized-world Tilting at Windmills: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/tilting-windmills A City Blazes Its Clean Energy Trail: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/city-blazes-its-clean-energy-trail
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The view of Americans on the environmental and economic implications of fracking continues to be sharply divided a decade after the shale revolution began. But the author of a new book, The Fracking Debate, finds more nuanced perspectives in wellhead communities. -- The shale revolution in the United States is now more than a decade old. In the intervening years, energy companies have tapped vast, previously uneconomical oil and natural gas resources through a suite of technologies, including hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, and horizontal drilling. The results have been dramatic. Today the U.S. is a leading producer of oil, and the top global supplier of natural gas. But the shale revolution has also bred controversy as the country has struggled to balance fracking’s economic and environmental impacts. Those for and against fracking have often gone to great lengths to promote their views. Along the way, previously quiet communities, from Pennsylvania to North Dakota, have struggled to accommodate waves of drilling rigs and energy workers. Guest Daniel Raimi spent several years traveling the country to get to know the communities where fracking takes place. His travels led to a new book, The Fracking Debate: The Risks, Benefits, and Uncertainties of the Shale Revolution. In it Raimi seeks to relate the perspective of communities, and citizens, on fracking’s front lines, and provide unbiased answers to some of the biggest questions surrounding fracking. Related Content Pennsylvania’s Gas Decade: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/pennsylvanias-gas-decade Polar Stress Test Revisits Gas-Powered Grids: https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/01/03/polar-stress-test-revisits-gas-powered-grids
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U.S. corporations increasingly look to manage their carbon footprints, and energy costs, by entering into clean energy power purchase agreements (PPAs). The contracts offer a tailwind to renewable energy developers, but can challenge traditional utility-customer relationships. --- Ninety-five percent of the world’s largest 250 companies by revenue issue sustainability reports that disclose their environmental and social impact. On the energy front, this often translates into companies setting goals for clean energy use, with Google, Microsoft and Wal-Mart having set 100% clean energy targets for parts of their businesses. As companies look to aggressively reduce their carbon footprint, some are taking the step of making direct investments in clean energy projects through contracts known as wind and solar Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), under which they buy electricity directly from clean energy generators. Such deals ensure that clean energy purchases pass the additionality test, yet can disrupt traditional utility-customer relationships. Energy legal and regulatory expert Ken Kulak provides insights into corporate America’s efforts to clean up its electricity supply, even as the bulk of America’s electric generation continues to be powered by fossil fuels. Ken Kulak is Partner with the Morgan Lewis law firm in Philadelphia, and a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. Related Content Utilities Continue Coal Retreat, Advance on Gas and Renewables https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/12/13/part-3-utilities-continue-coal-retreat-advance-gas-and-renewables Tilting at Windmills https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/tilting-windmills
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The Energy Department’s proposal to shore up coal and nuclear power plants could undermine the very foundations of competitive electricity markets. PJM Interconnection’s Stu Bresler, SVP for Operations and Markets, weighs in on DOE’s proposal, and explains PJM’s price formation alternative. --- In October, Department of Energy secretary Rick Perry grabbed the attention of US competitive wholesale electricity markets when he issued an unusual request to the federal agency tasked with overseeing these markets, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Perry’s proposal, known as the resiliency NOPR (or Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), asked that subsidies be paid to electricity generators that the Energy Department maintains are critical to the resilient operation of the electricity system. More specifically, the subsidies would go to coal and nuclear power plants that can store a 90-day supply of fuel on-site. DOE maintains that this would ensure the plants’ continued operation in the event of fuel supply disruptions, for example during extreme weather. But the move to favor certain generators threatens to undermine competitive market principles that are the foundation of electricity markets. It could also disadvantage other forms of generation, mainly natural gas and renewables which, the Energy Secretary maintains, are less resilient. PJM Interconnection, the largest competitive electricity market, has been outspoken in its concerns around the DOE proposal and the resiliency assumptions that underlie it. In this episode, PJM’s Stu Bresler, Senior Vice President for Operations and Markets, presents PJM’s alternative proposal, which aims to reform the way prices are set in energy markets. Critically from PJM’s perspective, it’s price formation reforms would preserve market-based principles. PJM’s proposed plan would increase revenues to electric generators, ultimately benefitting the same endangered coal and nuclear plants that the DOE aims to support. The Kleinman Center’s Christina Simeone, Director of Policy and External Affairs, who has written extensively on issues related to PJM, and handles the questioning. Related Content Initial Questions on PJM’s Price Formation Proposal http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/11/21/initial-questions-pjm’s-price-formation-proposal What the Heck is “Enhanced Price Formation” in PJM http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/11/21/what-heck-“enhanced-price-formation”-pjm PJM Governance http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/pjm-governance Department of Energy Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule NOPR https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/09/f37/Notice%20of%20Proposed%20Rulemaking%20.pdf Initial Comments of PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. on the United States Department of Energy Proposed Rule http://www.pjm.com/-/media/documents/ferc/filings/2017/20171023-rm-18-1-000.ashx DOE Staff Report to the Secretary on Electricity Markets and Reliability https://energy.gov/downloads/download-staff-report-secretary-electricity-markets-and-reliability
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Mass migration to India’s cities will triple the size of its built environment by 2030, driving up energy use and carbon emissions. An expert on India’s energy sector looks at the country’s efforts to balance development and climate impact. --- Few countries face the challenge of balancing economic development and climate change as acutely as India, and in no other country is this balance likely to directly impact the lives of so many people. Over the next decade, some 200 million rural Indians will move to urban centers. Many will join the middle class, creating new demand for goods and energy while tripling the size of India’s built environment. At the same time, rising temperatures and the desertification of India’s agricultural regions will challenge the country’s ability to feed itself. Energy Policy Now guest Radhika Khosla, Visiting Scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, looks at India’s growing demand for energy, and at how the development decisions the country makes today will to a large extent lock in place its energy needs and climate impact for decades to come. Radhika Khosla is a Fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, India and India Fellow at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Oxford. She is also a visiting scholar at the MIT Energy Initiative, and a former Staff Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Related Content: Energy Transformation and Air Quality in India http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/11/10/energy-transformation-and-air-quality-india Aligning Local Logic with Global Need http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/aligning-local-logic-global-need
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Owners of rooftop solar could soon begin selling power into wholesale electricity markets, the traditional domain of big coal, gas and nuclear generators. The catch: electricity markets need to get fully behind the switch. --- America’s electricity system is undergoing dramatic change, in particular as distributed energy resources – notably rooftop solar and battery storage – become more common. Taken in aggregate, total rooftop solar and electricity storage now equals the generation potential of several traditional power plants. As these resources grow more popular, their potential to impact the larger electricity system also grows. Accordingly, some in the electricity industry have recognized the potential for distributed energy to participate in the same competitive, wholesale electricity markets that have been the domain of large nuclear, gas and coal generators. Ari Peskoe, Senior Fellow in Electricity Law at the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Policy Program Initiative, weighs in on the growth opportunity that wholesale markets can provide to distributed electricity, and at the policy and economic challenges that remain to their participation in these markets. Ari Peskoe is a Visiting Scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and Senior Fellow in Electricity Law at the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Policy Program Initiative. Earlier, as an energy attorney, he litigated cases before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Related Content: So What Are Utilities Doing About Storage? http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/10/27/so-what-are-utilities-doing-about-storage A Looming Bust for U.S. Solar Industry? http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/09/25/looming-bust-us-solar-industry Examining the Role of Early-Stage Venture Capital Investment in Industry http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/09/08/examining-role-early-stage-venture-capital-investment-energy Rate Decoupling and Economic and Design Considerations http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/rate-decoupling-and-economic-and-design-considerations
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A growing number of U.S. cities have set aggressive clean energy and efficiency targets, but the complexity and cost of energy transition can be daunting. Philadelphia’s Energy Manager offers insights into his city’s new plan to go 100% renewable and cut energy use. --- In September, the City of Philadelphia introduced its roadmap to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and move to 100% renewable energy. Philadelphia’s plan is a step toward fulfilling its commitment to lowering its carbon footprint, and comes as cities across the United States have moved to act on climate change as the federal commitment to address global warming has withered. Adam Agalloco, Philadelphia’s Energy Manager, outlines Philadelphia’s new Municipal Energy Master Plan, the means available to cities that aim to act independently to address climate change, and the costs of doing so. Adam Agalloco is Energy Manager for the City of Philadelphia and lead planner for Philadelphia’s Municipal Energy Master Plan, the city’s roadmap to reduce carbon emissions and adopt renewable energy. Related Content: Tilting at Windmills: The Emerging U.S. Offshore Wind Industry: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/tilting-windmills Comparative Path to Regional Energy Transition: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/pathways Aligning Local Logic with Global Need: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/aligning-local-logic-global-need Pennsylvania’s Gas Decade: Insights into Consumer Pricing Impacts from Shale Gas (2007-2016): http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/pennsylvanias-gas-decade
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The U.S. government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the past decade to rebuild coastal cities and towns following hurricanes, yet coastlines remain vulnerable to repeat disaster. Two Penn urban policy experts discuss coastal resiliency and the process by which government allocates recovery funds. -- Federal spending on hurricane disaster relief has risen dramatically since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. Federal agencies have paid out $200 billion dollars for coastal recovery since. And, more recently, Texas governor Greg Abbott projected that recovery from Hurricane Harvey could total $150 billion or more. As spending rises, the need to ensure that coastal towns and cities are more resilient to future, repeat disasters has come to the forefront. And, with much of the nation’s oil refining and chemical industry located in low lying coastal areas, the challenge includes fortifying energy infrastructure, and protecting communities from toxic hazards. Ellen Neises and Billy Fleming, urban policy experts at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design, discuss the process government uses to select and fund recovery projects, and how coastal areas can be made more resilient. Ellen Neises is Executive Director of Penn Praxis, the center for Applied Research and Planning at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Her recent work has focused on developing solutions to rebuild, protect and improve cities hit by Hurricane Sandy. Billy Fleming is Research Coordinator for the Ian L. McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design, where his research focuses on climate adaptation planning along the U.S. coast. During the Obama Administration, he worked on urban policy development on the White House Domestic Policy Council. Related Content Power Down in Puerto Rico: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/09/28/power-down-puerto-rico Hot Topics on Climate Change: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/hot-topics-climate-change Comparative Pathways to Regional Energy Transition: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/pathways Aligning Global Logic with Local Need: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/aligning-local-logic-global-need
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Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy weighs in on the fate of the Clean Power Plan, and the EPA itself, under current Administrator Scott Pruitt. --- These are challenging times at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In February of this year former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who had sued the EPA more than a dozen times to block environmental and health protections, became the agency’s Administrator. In the months since, he has called for cuts to EPA programs, sought to repeal the Clean Power Plan, and debunk science on climate change. How far will EPA leadership may go in rolling back climate protections? And, more fundamentally, can the EPA operate as an objective steward of the environment and public health in an era when politics, rather than science, increasingly appear to set its agenda? In this episode of Energy Policy Now the Honorable Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the EPA during President Barack Obama’s second term, weighs in on the EPA’s current policy direction, the Trump administration’s attack on climate science, and the practical impact of a Clean Power Plan rollback on carbon reduction. Gina McCarthy served as EPA Administrator from 2013 to 2017 under President Barack Obama. She recorded this podcast during her visit to the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, to receive the Center’s annual Carnot Prize in celebration of her contributions to environmental policy and to securing a sustainable energy future during her tenure with the EPA. She is currently Menschel Senior Fellow at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Related Content from the Kleinman Center Perry’s Regulatory Curve Ball to Bailout Baseload: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/09/29/perry’s-regulatory-curve-ball-bailout-baseload Reconciling Subsidized Resources in PJM’s Competitive Electricity Markets: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/reconciling-subsidized-resources Energy Storage in PJM: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/energy-storage-pjm Hot Topics on Climate Change: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/hot-topics-climate-change Zero Emissions Credits: An Overview: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/08/31/zero-emissions-credits-overview Shot and Chaser: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2017/08/21/shot-and-chaser The Carbon Tax: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/carbon-tax
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Can tightly regulated coal mining help undo decades worth of environmental damage caused by the coal industry? A Pennsylvania DEP official, and a mining executive, discuss efforts to remediate water and land in the state’s Anthracite coal region. -- Pennsylvania’s economy has long been tied to its coal industry. In the 19th century the state’s pioneering coal companies fueled America’s industrial revolution, and thousands of mining sites opened over the decades that followed. Yet, over a century later, many of Pennsylvania’s coal mines have closed as the resource’s primacy has waned. John Stefanko, Deputy Secretary for the Office of Active and Abandoned Mine Operations at Pennsylvania’s DEP, and Greg Driscoll, Chief Executive of Blaschak Coal Company, look at the environmental damage that remains after mines have been abandoned, and on cooperation between today’s coal industry, and regulators, to clean up some of that damage. The focus is on the Anthracite coal industry of Northeastern Pennsylvania, where the remains of a once large coal industry attempts to find profits, while bearing costs for cleaning up the damage of past decades. John Stefanko is Deputy Secretary for the Office of Active and Abandoned Mine Operations at Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection. Related Content: The Carbon Tax: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/carbon-tax Ending Fossil Fuel Tax Subsidies: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/ending-fossil-fuel-tax-subsidies Comparative Pathways to Regional Energy Transition: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/pathways Revitalizing Coal Communities: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/revitalizing-coal-communities
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The electric vehicle market seems poised to take off, with high demand for Tesla’s Model 3 and growing attention from big automakers. Yet challenges that stalled EV growth in the past, namely sparse charging infrastructure and high costs, persist. A Wharton School expert looks at the role policymakers can take to support, or sink, the EV renaissance. --- Thanks for joining the Energy Policy Now podcast for our first episode of Season 2. These are exciting times for fans of electric vehicles. Tesla, the Silicon Valley electric car maker, recently introduced its long awaited, relatively affordable Model 3, complete with a huge order backlog. Also recently, the governments of France and the UK announced their goal to phase out the sale of new gas and diesel cars within a generation, opening the door to electrics. Yet in the US the electric vehicle market has looked poised for breakthrough in the past, only to disappoint. In the 1990s General Motors developed a promising electric car, the EV1, that it subsequently sought to erase from common memory. And a century ago, around the time that Henry Ford introduced the Model T, electric cars were common. Yet they ultimately all but disappeared. John Paul MacDuffie, an expert on EV policy at the Wharton School, takes a look at policies that might help electric cars stick this time around, and at innovative government interventions that are already fueling EV markets abroad. John Paul MacDuffie is a professor of Management at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and Director of the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation, an international research consortium focused on the global automotive industry. Related Content from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy: Ending Fossil Fuel Tax Subsidies http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/ending-fossil-fuel-tax-subsidies Stalled: Make Big Trucks More Fuel Efficient http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/stalled-make-big-trucks-more-fuel-efficient Future Energy Demands on the Global Aviation Industry http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/future-energy-demands-global-aviation-energy
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The Trump Administration has framed regulation as a drag on the economy and jobs. Yet how much do we really understand about the true benefits and costs of protecting the environment? Two legal and regulatory experts weigh in. --- Early in his administration, President Trump vowed to focus on rolling back regulatory oversight of the energy industry and to lift the regulatory burden on business. Conspicuously absent from two of Trump’s early executive orders targeting environmental oversight, however, was any mention of the benefits that regulation has brought in the areas of environment and health. Regulatory experts Alan Krupnick, Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future, and Cary Coglianese, Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Program on Regulation, take a look at the benefit-cost equation underlying the development of regulations, and at the actual benefits, and costs, of key policies. Alan Krupnick’s work at Resources for the Future focuses on analyzing energy and environmental issues, in particular the design of pollution and energy strategies. He was a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton Administration, and president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Cary Coglianese is the Edward B. Shils Professor of Law, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in the study of regulation and regulatory processes and has served as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. He is the founder of the Regulatory Review, the flagship publication of the Penn Program on Regulation.
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Recent financial bailouts of nuclear reactors in New York and Illinois highlight the conflict between states’ environmental goals and the integrity of electricity markets. As more states weigh subsidies, debate over their market impact and legality expand. --- In 2016 New York and Illinois became the first states to provide direct subsidies to the nuclear power industry, with the goal of keeping economically uncompetitive reactors operating within their borders. The states deemed the nuclear plants, which generate electricity without producing carbon dioxide, as critical to their efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Yet the bailouts proved contentious in the two states, and the controversy over subsidies is now spreading to a handful of other states weighing similar bailouts. Opponents object to subsidies cost, and argue that they may discourage investment in other new forms of generation, such as natural gas and renewables. And the very legality of the bailouts is now being reviewed in court. In this episode, Christina Simeone, the Kleinman Center’s Director of Regulatory and External Affairs, and David Cherney, an energy industry advisor in the Energy & Utilities Practice at PA Consulting Group in Denver, will examine the roots of nuclear’s financial woes, and the widening debate around nuclear power’s role in decarbonization of the electricity sector. Christina Simeone is Director of Policy and External Affairs at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a past Director of the PennFuture Energy Center for Enterprise and Environment. She also worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and was Policy Director at the Alliance for Climate Protection. David Cherney’s work at PA Consulting Group spans public policy analysis, energy infrastructure investment, and utility strategy. He has also worked as an Adjunct Professor in Public Policy at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and as a Teaching Fellow at Yale University.
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The risk models that policymakers, insurers and communities rely on to predict the nature and frequency of weather-related disasters are becoming less reliable as climate change advances. A Wharton School climate risk expert examines how we might adequately, and equitably, prepare for future disasters. --- In 2012 Hurricane Sandy caused over $70 billion in damage along the U.S. Atlantic coast, leaving communities in desperate financial condition and pushing the National Flood Insurance Program, already financially stretched by a decade of severe weather-related claims, deeper into debt. In addition, coastal cities like Miami and Norfolk, Virginia now experience regular nuisance flooding, demanding huge investments in protective infrastructure to fend off rising seas. How will the U.S. pay for infrastructure needed to minimize the impact of future disasters even as population grows in increasingly flood-prone areas? Howard Kunreuther, Co-Director of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the challenge of balancing support for communities at risk for natural disaster with the economic and political challenges to doing so. He also highlights how human psychology can make it hard for people to grasp the likelihood of future disasters, and the role this has played in pushing the national flood insurance program to the brink of insolvency. Howard Kunreuther is the James G. Dinan professor of Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis. He has served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Episode recorded on 5/25/17)
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How much should countries spend today to avoid climate change impacts that may be far into the future? A renown economist discusses the emerging discipline of climate economics and explores means of efficiently putting mitigation funds to work. --- How much will global warming cost future generations, and how much should we pay today to avoid the damage a warming climate will cause? Economist Per Krusell, a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and member of the Nobel Prize for Economics Committee within the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, discusses the challenge of accurately pricing future damages expected to arise from climate change, and how future costs are reflected through the social cost of carbon. Krusell also highlights how climate economics attempts to guide policymakers toward strategies that make best use of limited climate mitigation funds. Per Krusell is Professor of Economics at Stockholm University. His research focuses broadly on macroeconomics, and the impacts that result from technological change and economic policy. He’s working on a long-term project on the interaction between climate change and the economy.
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Carbon Capture and Storage has the potential to dramatically reduce the carbon emissions from the burning of coal. Yet the technology’s boosters need to overcome high costs, and major infrastructure challenges, if they’re to make a dent in emissions. --- Carbon capture and storage offers the promise of slashing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, and has been touted by some in the electricity industry as part of a basket of “clean coal” technologies that will dramatically reduce the fuel’s environmental impact and provide a lifeline to the U.S. coal sector. Yet CCS is the only clean coal technology that has yet to prove feasible at a scale, and existing CCS projects are few and far between. Kleinman Center for Energy Policy senior fellow John Quigley takes a look at efforts to reduce the technology’s cost and the relative lack of government support to date for CCS. Quigley also discusses CCS’s environmental promise and whether it can be deployed in time to make a positive climate impact. Guest John Quigley served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from January 2015 to May 2016 and as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from 2009 to 2011. Quigley led some of the nation’s most advanced work on the potential of Carbon Capture and Storage under former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell. He is currently a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
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Fossil fuel tax breaks cost the U.S. $4 billion per year. A former Treasury Department Environment and Energy official looks at whether that’s money well spent. --- The U.S. fossil fuel industry benefits from $4 billion a year in government subsidies, most in the form of tax breaks. But over the past decade debate over the need for subsidies has intensified. The energy industry argues that these subsidies promote the development of domestic energy and support oil and gas jobs. Opponents say there is little justification for subsidizing fossil fuels when government’s focus should be on clean energy and climate. And politicians from both sides of the aisle argue that the government could better use the money spent on subsidies elsewhere. Guest Gilbert Metcalf, Professor of Economics at Tufts University and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, takes a look at the real impact of subsidies on the economics of energy development, renewables and on the environment. Metcalf, who formerly served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy at the U.S. Department of Treasury, is a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
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A senior member of the U.S. State Department’s 2015 Paris climate negotiating team explores the implications of a Trump administration pullback from the agreement. --- The Trump administration has offered conflicting messages around its intention to honor U.S. commitments under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. Still in the early days of his presidency, President Trump has launched a range of efforts to roll back domestic climate protections, most notably his recent executive order to withdraw support for the Clean Power Plan, and his promise to weaken automotive fuel economy standards. Both are essential to the U.S. meeting its Paris climate goals. Yet some voices in the administration, and within the energy industry, have urged the President to “maintain a seat at the table” of global climate dialogue. Andrew Light, former member of the U.S. State Department’s Paris climate negotiating team, explores the outlook for constructive U.S. participation in the effort to combat climate change and the fate of a global, coordinated climate effort. Andrew Light is a Distinguished Senior Fellow in the Global Climate Program at the World Resources Institute and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University. From 2013 to 2016 he worked for the U.S. State Department, where he was Chair of the Interagency Climate Working Group on UN Sustainable Development Goals, and he served on the senior strategy team for UN Climate Negotiations. Earlier, he was Director of International Climate Policy at the Center for American Progress.
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The Trump administration is leveraging an array of legal and political tools to roll back environmental protections. A U. Penn environmental law expert takes a look a Trump’s strategy, pitfalls that await, and the potential for protections to endure. -- The Trump administration is doing its best to fulfill its campaign promise to reduce environmental protections related to the energy industry and wider economy. Rollback efforts are taking place through a variety of means, including the issuance of an executive order that notably targets the Clean Power Plan, the defunding of government agencies with environmental oversight, and the use of an obscure rule that allows Congress to overturn standards issued in the final months the Obama administration. Yet the success of rollbacks isn’t assured. In some cases environmental protections exist due to legal requirement, and where rollbacks create a regulatory vacuum, new rules must take their place. University of Pennsylvania law professor Cary Coglianese explores the administration’s options to pare environmental rules and the challenges each approach is likely to face. Coglianese also takes a look at possible routes to defend protections. Cary Coglianese is professor of law and political science at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Penn Program on Regulation. He specializes in the study of regulation and regulatory processes and has served as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency. He is the founder of The Regulatory Review, the flagship publication of the Penn Program on Regulation.
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Distributed energy technologies like rooftop solar are eating away at electric utilities’ business. Can utilities adapt, and at what cost to consumers? -- Rooftop solar attracts homeowners with the promise of electricity savings and environmental benefits. Yet every kilowatt hour of electricity generated at home translates into an equivalent amount of electricity no longer sold by a traditional electric utility. As utilities face the prospect of flat and even declining electricity revenue, concerns over their future economic health, and the reliability of the electric power supply we’ve long taken for granted, have been called increasingly into question. Sonny Popowsky, former Consumer Advocate for Pennsylvania and advisory board member of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy explores how utilities might adapt to the challenge of distributed energy and energy efficiency, and the costs their survival could bring to ratepayers. Sonny Popowsky served as the Consumer Advocate of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 2012. He served as the President of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) from 1996 to 1998 and was previously Chairman of the NASUCA Electric Committee. Mr. Popowsky served on the Board of Trustees of the NorthAmerican Electric Reliability Council (NERC) from 1997 to 2001 and the NERC Stakeholders Committee from2001 to 2006. In 2010, Mr. Popowsky was appointed to the Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee and was named Vice Chair of that Committee in 2012. Mr. Popowsky also currently serves on the Advisory Council of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Board of Directors of the Energy Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia, the Executive Council of the Pennsylvania AARP, and as a pro bono member of the Certification Decision Committee of the Center for Sustainable Shale Development.
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Carbon taxation and carbon cap and trade have been implemented with varied success as greenhouse gas reduction strategies in recent years. Carbon taxes have gone into effect, seemingly counterintuitively, where the energy industry looms large. And cap and trade programs have operated broadly across Europe, and regionally in parts of the U.S. Energy Policy Now guest Jim Hines, Professor of economics and law at the University of Michigan, provides insight into the workings of cap and trade and carbon taxation, and explains the unique set of factors that may make one policy more politically acceptable than the other. Jim Hines is a professor of law and economics at the University of Michigan, and an editorial advisor to the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. His research is focused on various aspects of taxation. He is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and research director of the International Tax Policy Forum.
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In 2016 the first shipment of U.S. liquefied natural gas left by tanker from a terminal on the Gulf coast. In the year since, U.S. LNG has made its way to customers around the globe, increasing competition in the gas market and threatening to loosen the grip of some suppliers on captive markets. Guest Anna Mikulska, Senior Fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, talks about the globalization of the natural gas market, the competitiveness of U.S. exports and their implications for relationships abroad. Dr. Anna Mikulska is a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and nonresident scholar in energy studies at the Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies at Rice University. Her research interests center around European energy markets and energy policy. She has presented papers at numerous national and international conferences and co-authored articles in the European Journal of Political Research and the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, as well as a chapter in the “Introduction to American Government” textbook. Mikulska has served as a reviewer for numerous scholarly journals and was on the editorial board of the law review at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland.
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n January 2017 Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta took the unprecedented step of instituting a carbon tax. Combined with a cap on greenhouse emissions from the Oil Sands, the bulk of the province’s economy is now party to one of the most encompassing efforts to date in North America to address global warming. Alberta’s senior diplomatic representative to the United States, Gitane De Silva, talks about the province’s climate goals and the process by which Albertan industry, environmentalists and government found common ground to get the tax passed. Gitane De Silva is Alberta’s Senior Representative to the United States. Prior to her current appointment, she served as Deputy Minister of Alberta International and Intergovernmental Relations. Before joining the Alberta Civil Service, Ms. De Silva was Consul General of Canada in Chicago.
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New energy storage technologies are increasingly connecting to the electric grid, but it’s not clear that current rules in electricity markets are designed to help storage and new distributed energy resources (DER) participate as fully as other generation. The federal government’s electricity market regulator, FERC, has issued a notice with proposed rules that could create new opportunities for deployment and investment but also raise questions for stakeholders to address.
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The airline industry accounts for two percent of global carbon emissions, and emissions are likely to increase as the popularity of air travel rises. Policymakers are increasingly working with airlines to find ways to limit emissions growth. But the diverse, global industry is difficult to regulate, and competitiveness issues abound. Megan Ryerson, professor of transportation at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in environmental impacts of the air transportation system, provides insights into the airline industry’s environmental challenges and possible strategies to address its greenhouse emissions. Dr. Megan S. Ryerson is an Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning and Electrical and Systems Engineering in the area of Transportation at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the tradeoff between economic development and environmental impacts presented by the air transportation system and the design of resilient multimodal transportation system networks. She received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Learn more: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now
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In recent years cyber attacks have targeted sensitive data of multinational oil companies, downed one country’s power grid and sabotaged another’s nuclear weapons program. Despite growing risks to domestic infrastructure, U.S. energy and electricity sectors remain ill-prepared to defend themselves against cyber threats. Bill Hederman, former senior advisor to the U.S. secretary of energy and a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center, discusses cybersecurity and the roles of industry and government in confronting security challenges. Guest Bill Hederman most recently served as senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, providing leadership on USDOE missions to Ukraine, the Baltics, and Germany. He is the chief architect behind the analytic framework developed for DOE's groundbreaking Quadrennial Energy Review. During the Enron and California crises, Hederman joined FERC and formed the Office of Market Oversight and Investigations, which has been credited with playing a major role in the restoration of confidence in electricity and natural gas regulatory oversight. Learn more: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now
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Explosive development of shale resources has breathed new economic life into communities across the United States, current low gas prices notwithstanding. But how might individual states balance fossil energy-driven economic development with environmental protection? Former Pennsylvania DEP Secretary and coal-town Mayor John Quigley discusses his state’s political juggling of energy and environmental concerns, and the prospects for environmental progress should policymakers roll back fossil fuel regulations. Guest John Quigley served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from January 2015 to May 2016 and as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from 2009 to 2011. He is the first and only person in Pennsylvania history to serve as Secretary of both of the state's natural resource agencies. Quigley also served as a two-term mayor of Hazleton, PA. He is currently a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. Learn more: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now
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Twenty years ago Pennsylvania opened its electricity sector to competition and the promise of cheaper and more reliable service. Two decades later, competitive markets have mostly delivered, but with notable caveats. Former Pennsylvania Secretary of Policy and Planning and DEP Head John Hangar, and the Kleinman Center Policy Director Christina Simeone examine the benefits and shortcomings of two decades of wholesale and retail electric competition. Their findings appear in their recently published report, “A Case Study of Electricity Competition Results in Pennsylvania”, which is available for download at http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/electricity-competition . Guest John Hangar has held four public offices and was a Democratic candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania. He works in the private sector as a legal services attorney and is the founder of an environmental non-profit organization. Christina Simeone is the director of policy and external affairs at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Learn more: http://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now
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