Energy Policy Now

New research disproves the assumption that exposure to climate-related natural disasters motivates people to support climate policy.   ---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 Related ContentInnovation in Isolation: Islands and the Energy Transition https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/innovation-in-isolation-islands-and-the-energy-transition/Climate Adaptation Strategies: How Do We “Manage” Managed Retreat? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/climate-adaptation-strategies-how-do-we-manage-managed-retreat/Balancing Renewable Energy Goals With Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-with-community-interests/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been tasked with combating climate change.  What climate action is the Treasury likely to take under her leadership?---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.Related Content A More Effective Approach To Carbon-Zero Real Estate https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/news-insights/a-more-effective-approach-to-carbon-zero-real-estate/Green Energy & National Security: A Fresh Perspective https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/news-insights/green-energy-national-security-a-fresh-perspective/Innovation In Isolation: Islands And The Energy Transition https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/?exposed_related_research_area%5B%5D=331See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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?---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.Related ContentThe Opportunities and Limitations of Seasonal Energy Storage https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-opportunities-and-limitations-of-seasonal-energy-storage/Efficiency and Diversification: A Framework for Sustainably Transitioning to a Carbon-Neutral Economy  https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/efficiency-and-diversification-a-framework-for-sustainably-transitioning-to-a-carbon-neutral-economy/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/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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?---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.Related Content The Opportunities and Limitations of Seasonal Energy Storage https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-opportunities-and-limitations-of-seasonal-energy-storage/ Feasibility of Seasonal Storage for a Fully Electrified Economy https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/feasibility-of-seasonal-storage-for-a-fully-electrified-economy/ Balancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-with-community-interests/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.---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.Related Content Will Trump’s Regulatory Rollbacks Survive? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/will-trumps-regulatory-rollbacks-surviveHow to Combat the Corona-Recession and Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2020/08/07/how-combat-corona-recession-and-climate-changeBalancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-community-interestsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Large scale offshore wind development will require a rethink of how America’s electric grid is designed, and paid for. ---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.Related Content 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-pricingDeveloping Our Renewable Energy Futurehttps://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-energySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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?---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 challengesIn 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.Related ContentBalancing Renewable Energy Goals With Community Interests  https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-community-interestsEnergy Transitions Are Brown Before They Go Green. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/energy-transitions-are-brown-they-go-greenZoning 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 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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?---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.Related ContentWhat’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-1The 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-marketSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.---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. Related ContentBalancing Renewable Energy Goals with Community Interests https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/balancing-renewable-energy-goals-community-interestsThe Best Local Response to Climate Change is a Comprehensive Efficiency Plan https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/best-local-response-climate-change-comprehensive-efficiency-planElectric Vehicles in the City: The Relationship of EV Infrastructure and Spatial Development in Beijing https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/electric-vehicles-city See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An environmental lawyer examines the legal and social challenges that could complicate managed retreat from areas at risk to climate-related disaster.---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. Related Content Climate Adaptation Strategies: How Do We “Manage” Managed Retreat? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/climate-adaptation-strategiesIt’s Time to Rethink Flood Insurancehttps://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-citiesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.