Energy policymakers and business leaders often contact the Energy Institute looking for thought leadership and analysis to help them address energy challenges. The first place we point them is the Energy Institute Blog.
With over ten years of blog posts, Energy Institute experts have explored hundreds of topics. To help our readers navigate the extensive blog post archives, we have assembled a list of essential blog posts, grouped by topic. Hopefully, this serves as an efficient approach to help you access the Energy Institute’s expertise.
Essential Blog Posts:
- Are Vehicle Air Pollution Standards Effective, Efficient, and Equitable? (by Mark R. Jacobsen, James M. Sallee, and Arthur A. van Benthem, December 5, 2022): Exhaust standards drove 99% declines in vehicle emissions, but incentives to scrap old vehicles are still needed.
- Environmental Markets and Environmental Justice (by Joseph Shapiro and Reed Walker, March 29, 2021): Offset markets for air pollution don’t worsen environmental inequality, though they also don’t improve it.
- Is Air Pollution Regulation Too Stringent? (by Joseph Shapiro and Reed Walker, December 14, 2020): The benefits of additional air pollution regulation exceed the costs to industry by ten to one on average, according to a new analysis.
- What’s the Plan for Carbon Pricing in California? (by Meredith Fowlie, May 16, 2022): California’s policy makers are missing the opportunity to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions with its world-class, economy-wide cap-and-trade program.
- The Trouble with Carbon Pricing (by Meredith Fowlie, April 29, 2019): Surveys consistently find carbon pricing is unpopular, highlighting the need to focus on other policy tools to mitigate climate change.
- Pricing Carbon Isn’t Enough (by Severin Borenstein, April 15, 2019): Pricing carbon alone doesn’t solve the global need to develop low-cost alternative technologies through innovation.
- California’s Carbon Cap is not in Jeopardy, Because it’s Not Really a Cap (by Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell, January 2, 2018): Unused allowances are not an existential threat to the state’s market for greenhouse gasses.
- Is Cap and Trade Failing Low Income and Minority Communities? (by Meredith Fowlie, October 10, 2016): A widely-cited study that finds California’s cap-and-trade policy is increasing local air pollution lacks rigor.
- Shaping the Future of Fossil Fuels on the Electric Grid (by Andrew Campbell, May 13, 2023): The EPA’s proposed power plant rules lack the flexibility called for by a rapidly evolving electric grid.
- The CEPP is Not a Clean Energy Standard (by Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Steve Cicala, Ryan Kellogg, October 4, 2021): The federal government’s proposed Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) could encourage wasteful energy use.
- Putting the Brakes on E-Bikes (by Andrew Campbell, June 24, 2024): New tariffs on e-bikes will hurt the environment and our cities.
- Are Electric Trucks Ready for Primetime? (by James Sallee, July 5, 2023): California has a plan to take zero-emission trucking from 0 to 100, real quick; but regulators will need to monitor whether companies are finding ways to avoid the requirements.
- Should We Pay People to Drive Their Electric Cars? (by James Bushnell, October 10, 2022): An EPA plan to subsidize electricity going into vehicles could increase driving while reducing gasoline use.
- What Will Electrification Cost (the Distribution System)? (by Meredith Fowlie, June 27, 2022): Research shows that charging electric vehicles at homes will require widespread upgrade of circuits, but smarter charging could reduce the costs.
- A Gap in California’s Plan for the EV Future (by James Sallee, May 9, 2022): The California Air Resources regulations to mandate the sale of new electric vehicles will increase demand for used gasoline vehicles, partly undermining the policy goals.
- Waving Goodbye to the California Waiver? (by James Sallee, September 23, 2019): President Trump threatened to take away California’s ability to impose standards on automobile tailpipe emissions that are stricter than new federal rules.
- Should Electric Vehicle Drivers Pay a Mileage Tax? (by Lucas Davis and James Sallee, April 8, 2019): Electric vehicle drivers don’t pay gasoline taxes, so pay less for roads. A mileage tax on electric vehicle driving could better reflect the costs of driving and generate more revenues.
- Economists are from Mars, Electric Cars are from Venus (by James Bushnell, December 14, 2015): Economists research focus on the costs and effectiveness of existing and proposed regulations can conflict with environmental advocates’ focus on achieving numerical greenhouse gas reduction goals or specific technology transitions.
- What’s the Matter with California’s Gasoline Prices? (by Severin Borenstein, January 9, 2023): To develop effective solutions, policymakers must first understand the problem.
- What’s the Matter With Gasoline Prices? (by Severin Borenstein, May 2, 2022): Political rhetoric from both sides is more distracting than enlightening.
- Why Are Heat Pump Sales Decreasing? (by Lucas Davis, April 29, 2024): Decarbonization studies call for a big expansion of heat pump use for residential heating, yet sales dropped in 2023. Rising electricity prices, low natural gas prices and high interest rates could explain the drop.
- The Uninformed and Out of Control Energy Consumer (by Maximilian Auffhammer, May 30, 2023): Speedometers tell drivers how fast they are driving, but households do not have an equivalent for home electricity and natural gas use. Better and simpler information technology would help households make better decisions.
- Three Facts about Electric Heating in California (by Lucas Davis, May 8, 2023): California has a long way to go if it is going to electrify homes.
- Electric Vehicles for Renters: Getting Landlords to Act (by Andrew Campbell, January 18, 2022): The Home Upgrade Process Needs an Upgrade (by Andrew Campbell, June 13, 2022); Filling in Home Electrification Gaps (by Andrew Campbell, October 23, 2023): Home electrification today is far too expensive, time consuming and complex.
- Fighting Climate Change with Heat Pumps (by Meredith Fowlie, September 6, 2022): Heat pumps are cool. When new refrigerant regulations take hold, they’ll be much cooler.
- The Texas Power Crisis, New Home Construction, and Electric Heating (by Lucas Davis, February 22, 2021): No U.S. state has built as many new homes as Texas over the last decade and most of them use electric heat. The Texas power grid is hitting new winter peaks that could be mitigated if energy providers offer dynamic pricing.
- The Supply-Side Economics of Residential Electrification (by James Sallee, August 30, 2021): Providing rebates to contractors could be a more effective way to encourage home electrification than giving rebates to households.
- To See Or Not To See (by Maximilian Auffhammer, March 25, 2024): Having a wind turbine in your viewshed has a negligible impact on home values.
- California’s Duck-Belly Blues (by Meredith Fowlie, March 13, 2023): Batteries and regional markets are reducing the curtailment of solar energy production in California. Much more opportunity remains to increase mid-day electricity consumption and reduce curtailment further.
- The Electricity Price Isn’t Right (by Severin Borenstein; September 17, 2018): Social marginal cost (SMC) is an important benchmark to assess whether energy prices are leading to economically efficient decarbonization. A comparison of SMC to consumer electricity prices throughout the US reveals big gaps in some states.
- Ensuring Equity in California’s Energy Transition (by James Sallee; March 8, 2021): Energy Institute research breaks down the cost categories that contribute to California’s high residential electricity rates. The majority of costs do not vary with the amount of energy a household consumes, but are collected as if they do.
- Everyone Should Pay a “Solar Tax” (by James Bushnell; February 14, 2022): California’s policy to use net energy metering to encourage the adoption of rooftop solar has increased electricity prices for consumers and discouraged electrification.
- Rebalancing Rates for Electrification and Equity (by Severin Borenstein; May 1, 2023): Who’s Afraid of Retail Electricity Rate Reform? (by Meredith Fowlie; April 17, 2023): In response to research by Energy Institute faculty, California is introducing a new monthly fixed charge in order to encourage electrification and reduce the current cost burden on lower income households.
- Are Demand Charges Fair? (by Severin Borenstein; July 8, 2019): Some states have considered demand charges as a way to increase the bills of larger electricity users and lower the bills for smaller users. However, demand charges are unlikely to increase the efficiency or fairness of electricity pricing.
- How Much Electricity Consumption is Too Little? (by James Bushnell, June 3, 2019): California’s high electricity prices could be encouraging households to overinvest in energy efficiency.
- California’s Exploding Rooftop Solar Cost Shift (by Severin Borenstein, April 22, 2024): In 2024, residential PV will shift nearly $4 billion onto others’ bills, more than double the 2020 amount.
- Can Net Metering Reform Fix the Rooftop Solar Cost Shift? (by Severin Borenstein, January 25, 2021): If California doesn’t get electricity rates right, closing one perverse incentive may just increase another.
- Putting Solar in All the Wrong Places (by Lucas Davis, February 3, 2020): High retail electricity prices, not economic value, are driving U.S. investments in rooftop solar in some states but not others.
- Why Am I Paying $65/year for Your Solar Panels? (by Lucas Davis, March 16, 2018): California’s residential electricity rates are shifting costs from solar homes to everyone else.
- Does Rooftop Solar Help the Distribution System? (by Lucas Davis, June 25, 2018): Rooftop solar reduces costs on a limited number of circuits in the distribution system, but has very little benefit on the vast majority of circuits.
- Lessons in Regulatory Hubris (by James Bushnell, May 14, 2018): California’s policy to mandate rooftop solar on new homes is an example of common flaws in US energy policy.
- Not All of California’s Electricity Prices Are High (by Duncan Callaway and Meredith Fowlie, July 10, 2023): The gap between the residential electricity rates offered by publicly-owned utilities and investor-owned utilities is growing.
- What Does Capital Really Cost a Utility? (by Severin Borenstein, October 3, 2022): The return on equity requested by utilities and the return granted by regulators respond more quickly to rises in market measures of capital cost than to declines, costing ratepayers billions.
- (More) Breaking News! California Electricity Prices are Still High! (by James Bushnell, January 17, 2023; Breaking News! California Electricity Prices are High! (by James Bushnell, February 21, 2017): Deregulation is not the cause of California’s high and rising electricity rates.The state’s renewable portfolio standard bears some of the blame.
- How High Did California’s Electricity Prices Get? (by Lucas Davis, September 12, 2022): Wholesale electricity prices jumped and the lights stayed on during California’s September 2022 heat wave.
- California has a Strategic Electricity Reserve: (How) Should We Use it? (by James Bushnell, July 18, 2022): The developers of the state’s new back-up reserve will need to consider what types of generation assets to include and when to use them.
- To Fix the Power Market, First Fix the Natural Gas Market (by James Bushnell, March 1, 2021): Electricity capacity requirements don’t assure reliability when generators can’t get natural gas.
- Why Don’t We Do It With Demand? (by Severin Borenstein, August 24, 2020): Customers can help avoid blackouts if they are given better information and prices.
Updated July 10, 2024