Each week, I review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted over at the RFF Library Blog.
[From Press Release] What does it cost to save electricity? Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have conducted the most comprehensive study yet of the full cost of saving electricity by U.S. utility efficiency programs and now have an answer: 4.6 cents. That’s the average total cost of saving a kilowatt-hour in 20 states from 2009 to 2013, according to a Berkeley Lab report… - via Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory / Ian M. Hoffman, Gregory M. Rybka, Greg Leventis, Charles A. Goldman, Lisa C. Schwartz, Megan A. Billingsley, and Steven R. Schiller
Insights from Modeling the Proposed Clean Power Plan
The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Energy Project explores national- and regional-level impacts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan in its new economic analysis. The analysis, based on economic modeling of the electricity sector, explores the impacts of various policy choices for state consideration in developing state plans. In particular, the study compares single state versus multi-state implementation, rate-based versus mass-based compliance, and the policy treatment of new natural gas plants. The analysis also investigates how the availability of end-use energy efficiency and expectations for future natural gas prices could influence how the electricity sector responds to the Clean Power Plan. - via Bipartisan Policy Center / by Jennifer Macedonia, et al.
[Baltimore Sun] Even though Maryland has yet to permit any hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, emissions linked to the controversial drilling technique have been detected in the air in Baltimore and Washington, according to a new study. - via Atmospheric Environment v110 (2015, 144e150) / by Timothy Vinciguerra, et al.
The US Shale Gas Revolution and its Impact on Qatar’s Position in Gas Market
…The US Shale Gas Revolution and its Impact on Qatar’s Position in Gas Markets is a collaborative study between CGEP, Columbia and the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies that examines how Qatar may be impacted by major changes to the global LNG market. - via Oxford Institute for Energy Studies | Center on Global Energy Policy | Columbia SIPA / by Bassam Fattouh, Howard V. Rogers, and Peter Stewart
Adaptation, Sea Level Rise, and Property Prices in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
While the mean global sea level has climbed by an average of 3.2 mm/year since 1993—and is projected to increase another 0.18 – 0.82 meters by 2100—coastal populations have continued to expand. Coastal communities may be compelled to adapt to these competing forces, and at an increasing frequency in the near future. This paper explores the property price impact of several adaptation structures that can help bolster the shoreline and protect homes from sea level rise (SLR) in Anne Arundel County, MD. Our study uses a novel dataset on coastal features that is very spatially explicit, and contains the location of all adaptation structures. We also use maps of SLR zones to explore how property price impacts vary depending on vulnerability to sea level rise. - via National Center for Environmental Economics, US EPA / by Patrick J. Walsh, Charles Griffiths, Dennis Guignet, Heather Klemick
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