Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act will soon require the EPA and state governments to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil fuel–fired power plants. Many stakeholders envision a role for end-use energy efficiency as a flexible compliance strategy under Section 111(d), and though energy efficiency measures have no precedent under the section, there is a long history of Clean Air Act programs that recognize energy efficiency as viable emission reduction strategy. This joint analysis by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy identifies key issues with crediting end-use energy efficiency measures for Section 111(d) compliance—estimating which units experience emission reductions, measuring energy savings, and quantifying reductions in CO2 emissions. The report then explores how the incorporation of energy efficiency into the National Ambient Air Quality Standards program, the NOx SIP Call, and other Clean Air Act programs, can inform federal and state environmental regulators as they evaluate these Section 111(d) issues.

A new study in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin looks at whether improving the environmental quality of coastal areas through policy intervention had an effect on the way people use coastal areas. It found a direct correlation between increased attendance and the installation of storm drain diversions at 26 beaches in Santa Monica Bay and Malibu.

This paper provides a detailed report on major findings for B. Everett Jordan Dam within the context of all North Carolina reservoirs. While the majority of attention surrounds the ongoing assessment of water quality and nutrient management within Jordan Lake reservoir, our research on sedimentation rates can help uncover whether remaining sedimentation deposits pose an issue of capacity that should also be considered more actively as part of a broader water protection context. 

Duke University has developed the OptimaBIOGAS tool to model the opportunities for and costs of developing, transporting, and generating usable energy from a variety of biogas sources. In this analysis, the tool is used to clarify the options for and costs of sourcing biogas from landfills within North Carolina. The study found that biogas production is possible throughout many existing landfills in the state, but the economic viability of producing biogas at these locations depends on the cost of collecting and conditioning the gas and either using it to produce electric power onsite or transporting it into the existing natural gas pipeline network. In most cases, both the pipeline injection and electricity generation scenario are more costly than conventional sources in the gas and electricity markets; therefore some price premium would need to be paid to make them profitable. The state’s Renewable Energy and Efficiency Portfolio Standard might offer renewable energy credit payments to help these projects compete. However, biogas buyers may need to pay an additional “green energy” price premium to cover the higher costs of generation.

Current research on ecosystem services disproportionately focuses on supplying ever more information about the value of ecosystem services and less on a systematic, scientific understanding of the demand by decision-makers for such information. The field remains stuck in a supply side paradigm that assumes more sophisticated models about the supply and value of ecosystem services will lead to policy change. Because the supply-side is vast, a clear path forward has not emerged about what to value and at what level of accuracy. Thus our understanding of ecosystem services remains piecemeal and highly variable. In this article in the journal Ecosystem Services, the authors offer that to accelerate the adoption of the ecosystem service framework in practice, the research community needs to shift its attention to policy choices and the demand for data about ecosystems.

This report by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative highlights a comparative modeling analysis considering individual and centralized approaches for meeting North Carolina's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) mandate for swine. It finds that injecting biogas collected from an optimized network of farms into the natural gas pipeline could be a cost-effective approach to meeting the state REPS.

Forest ecosystems remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to organic carbon stored in terrestrial pools of biomass, soil, and residues. This process lowers atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, thereby mitigating a contributor to future climate-change threats. This article in the journal Encyclopedia of Energy, Natural Resource and Environmental Economics explores the economics of incentive-based approaches to managing forests and changing land use to store more carbon, such as those that are part of ongoing policy efforts throughout the world. It shows how incentives for carbon sequestration change the optimal time to harvest a timber stand, thereby working the intensive supply margin, increasing the amount of carbon stored in forests over time. It also shows how carbon compensation can attract land into forests from less carbon-sequestering land uses such as crop agriculture, thereby increasing carbon storage on the extensive margin. It provides examples from empirical studies of carbon sequestration from afforestation, forest management, and reduced emissions from deforestation.

Energy infrastructure across the United States is aging, and plant retirements are increasing due to a combination of newly implemented and impending environmental requirements and inexpensive natural gas. Utilities and regulators will have to decide how to update or replace aging facilities—estimated at a cost of $1.5 to $2 trillion over the next twenty years. This article in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law explores the opportunities and challenges to aligning state energy, environmental, and consumer protection goals within the current regulatory system, and proposes a “triple bottom line” (“TBL”) approach to state utility regulation to achieve this alignment.

The U.S. transportation sector continues to provide a variety of challenges to policy makers as a climate issue, an energy issue, and an economic issue. Transportation activity generates nearly 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and nearly the same share of energy consumption. Consumers spend, on average, more than $1,400 per year on transportation fuel, an amount that can vary substantially as fuel prices change. All of these are issues that confront policy makers and need solutions. This report presents a first-of-its-kind ranking of gasoline cost vulnerability, or the measure of the economic impact of transportation on typical residents of metropolitan regions.