Each week, we review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted at the “indispensable” RFF Library Blog, curated by RFF Librarian Chris Clotworthy.
EPA’s Clean Power Plan: States’ Tools for Reducing Costs & Increasing Benefits to Consumers
[Press Release] States are well positioned to implement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently proposed Clean Power Plan, according to a new report from Analysis Group. The report, funded by the Energy Foundation and the Merck Family Fund, was released at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ conference in Dallas. Analysis Group says the study is based on a careful analysis of states that already have experience regulating carbon pollution. It finds that those states’ economies have seen net increases in economic output and jobs... – via The Analysis Group for the Energy Foundation and the Merck Family Fund / by Paul Hibbard, et al.
Public Views on a Carbon Tax Depend on the Proposed Use of Revenue: New Report
[EcoWatch] While some U.S. are lukewarm on the idea of taxing fossil fuel companies for emitting carbon, more are willing to support a tax if the funds support cleaner energy. According to the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College’s Spring 2014 National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE), most Americans—56 percent—support a revenue-neutral carbon tax, in which all tax revenue would be returned to the public as a rebate check. However, that amount rises to 60 percent if revenues would be used to fund research and development for renewable energy programs… – via National Surveys on Energy and Environment
Mountaintop Removal for Mining Harmful to both Fish and Water Quality: USGS Study
[Washington Post] In West Virginia’s Appalachian mountains, fish are vanishing. The number of species has fallen, the populations of those that remain are down, and some individual fish look a little skinny. A new government study traces the decline in abundance to mountaintop removal, the controversial coal mining practice of clear cutting trees from mountains before blowing off their tops with explosives... – via Freshwater Biology
Energy Efficiency Financing Models for Buildings Could Work for Natural Gas Vehicles
This paper explores the opportunity for using ESCO-style service contracts to advance investment in natural gas vehicles by fleets. Starting with a brief overview of the ESCO market, this paper explains how ESCOs reduce barriers faced by energy efficiency and cost savings projects, presents case studies that demonstrate how some of the features of ESCOs are being employed in cutting-edge NGV fleet projects, and explores how these features could be incorporated into innovative business models that reduce the barriers to NGV fleet project investment... – via Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
…Through a meta-analytical procedure we call harmonization, we develop robust, analytically consistent, and updated comparisons of estimates of life cycle GHG emissions for electricity produced from shale gas, conventionally produced natural gas, and coal. On a per-unit electrical output basis, harmonization reveals that median estimates of GHG emissions from shale gas-generated electricity are similar to those for conventional natural gas, with both approximately half that of the central tendency of coal. Sensitivity analysis on the harmonized estimates indicates that assumptions regarding liquids unloading and estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of wells have the greatest influence on life cycle GHG emissions, whereby shale gas life cycle GHG emissions could approach the range of best-performing coal-fired generation under certain scenarios. Despite clarification of published estimates through harmonization, these initial assessments should be confirmed through methane emissions measurements at components and in the atmosphere and through better characterization of EUR and practices… via Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Harmonization of U.S. National Security and Climate Goals: Congressional Testimony
Editor’s note: On July 22, David Goldwyn delivered testimony on the U.S. security implications of international energy and climate policies at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, International Environmental Protection, and Peace Corps... via Brookings Institution
