Energy

The sun sets over electrical power lines in Switzerland.

REUTERS/Denis Balibouse - The sun sets over electrical power lines in Romanel near Lausanne in southern Switzerland September 23, 2008.

Report

Value of the Grid to DG Customers

October 1, 2013, Lisa V. Wood and Robert Borlick

State policies have encouraged distributed generation (DG) and, in particular, rooftop solar by compensating customers through net metering. Lisa Wood and Robert Borlick calculate that current net metering approaches unfairly shift the cost of grid services that DG customers utilize most or all of the time (such as transmission, distribution, and balancing services) onto onto non DG customers and that these costs are substantial. They recommend modifying the current net metering cost shifting using alternative approaches where DG customers pay their fair share of the cost of grid services.

Recent Activity

Refine by: Environment | Climate Change | Energy and Climate | Environmental Regulation

In the News

There are some technologies that can actually capture emissions of, for example, CO2, and those technologies right now are relatively expensive per ton of CO2 that you can actually eliminate from being omitted. But, there are also, of course, other options, there’s energy efficiency, there are alternative sources of supply, such as solar and wind, and there are even switches to other sources of fuel, such as natural gas.
October 3, 2013, Nathan Hultman, BBC
Interview

A Conversation on President Obama’s Trip to Mexico and Costa Rica

May 1, 2013, Joshua Meltzer, Diana Villiers Negroponte, Ted Piccone and Neil Ruiz
In the News

The State Department report will make it much harder for Obama to justify rejecting the Keystone project. Still, it has become a highly visible and emotionally charged symbol of an often diffuse issue, and it is where many leading environmental organizations have chosen to draw the line.
March 14, 2013, William A. Galston, The New Republic
Interview | The Monocle Daily

Why Jordan Is Building Two New Nuclear Power Plants

March 8, 2013, John P. Banks
Interview | NPR's The Diane Rehm Show

Environmental Outlook: Air Pollution In China

March 5, 2013, Kenneth G. Lieberthal
In the News

On the environmental objective, certainly we are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. But we argue that the best way to address that would be to put a price on carbon, for example through a carbon tax, rather than try to subsidize alternatives. [That]'s much less efficient. The way the [current] rules work, electric vehicle manufacturers can sell credits to other automakers toward their fuel economy standards, so that means that other automakers can sell more polluting cars for every electric car that's sold.
February 23, 2013, Adele Morris, National Public Radio
Expert Q & A | Elizabeth Ferris

The Black Swan: The Big Thaw

February 6, 2013, Elizabeth Ferris
In the News

There's going to be a demand for revenue, essentially, for the United States government to close its budget deficit over the coming years, and a carbon tax is one way where there's a possibility of taxing so-called bad CO2 emissions and off setting that with tax reductions on capital or income and this could have a positive effect of improving effiency and stimulating economic growth.
November 30, 2012, Joshua Meltzer, Sky Business
Interview | "State of Nevada," KNPR Nevada Public Radio

Debating Energy Policy

September 25, 2012, John P. Banks
In the News

In a world with a single, fungible energy market, talk of U.S. energy independence (whatever that means) is a fantasy, and grousing about imported oil is little better. But there is a non-fantastic way to reduce energy vulnerability: a multinational ban on gasoline.
June 21, 2012, Jonathan Rauch, The Atlantic