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:
- Can California Afford Carbon Pricing? (by Meredith Fowlie, January 13, 2025): Affordability isn’t the enemy of cap-and-trade—It’s the goal. Unlike other energy cost drivers and climate policies, cap-and-trade market revenues can be used to address energy affordability.
- 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 due to the program’s floor and ceiling.
- 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.
- Environmental Markets and Environmental Justice (by Joseph Shapiro and Reed Walker, March 29, 2021): A working paper that investigates a Clean Air Act program that has allowed firms to trade rights to emit air pollution within a metro area finds that offset markets for air pollution don’t worsen environmental inequality, though they also don’t improve it either.
- 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 the authors’ working paper examining the Clean Air Act.
- Can Data Centers Flex Their Power Demand? (by Severin Borenstein, April 14, 2025): First they need to have the right incentives to do so.
- Is there a “Duty to Serve” Hyperscale Loads? (by Severin Borenstein, December 2, 2024): If we don’t rethink the paradigm for new large electricity customers, they could end up burdening existing ratepayers.
- Saving Coal – One Bitcoin at a Time (by Maximilian Auffhammer, October 30, 2023): Research shows how bitcoin miners are making the world even worse by increasing the coal powered generation.
- Data Centers Are Booming (by Meredith Fowlie, October 9, 2023): Will they be energy hogs or energy angels? Both are possible.
- Bitcoins Should Be Called BTUcoins, and That’s a Problem (by Maximilian Auffhammer, January 8, 2018): Because electricity is not priced optimally, we all pay for excessive Bitcoin mining.
- The Freedom to Buy Inefficient Products (by Andrew Campbell, June 9, 2025): If the DOE undoes minimum energy efficiency standards, which are decades old, consumer costs will likely rise.
- Limitations of Standards (by Lucas Davis, September 16, 2019): U.S. energy-efficiency requirements for air conditioners illustrate the inherent limitations of standards.
- Energy Efficiency in Schools – How Are We Doing? (by Catherine Wolfram, October 2, 2017): A new paper uses machine learning and finds savings, but much lower than projected.
- Do Residential Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? (by Meredith Fowlie, Michael Greenstone and Catherine Wolfram, July 7, 2015): Some evidence, reactions, and responses.
- Is U.S. Gasoline Consumption Declining? (by Lucas Davis, May 12, 2025): Electric vehicles and other factors are leading drivers to use less gasoline.
- Three Ways to Kill an Electric Vehicle (by James Sallee, April 28, 2025): Tariffs, rollbacks, and the IRA repeal threaten to stall America’s EV transition, just as it was beginning to scale.
- 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.
- Are Vehicle Air Pollution Standards Effective, Efficient, and Equitable? (by Mark R. Jacobsen, James M. Sallee, and Arthur A. van Benthem, December 5, 2022): Passenger vehicle exhaust standards drove 99% declines in vehicle emissions since 1967 the authors’ find in their working paper, but incentives to scrap old vehicles are still needed.
- What Will Electrification Cost (the Distribution System)?(by Meredith Fowlie, June 27, 2022): An Energy Institute working paper 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.
- 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): Research spotlights how 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.
- Getting Utility Profits to Align with Public Benefits (by Andrew Campbell, March 17, 2025): Proposed performance-based ratemaking, a mainstay of UK policy, is unlikely to address California’s energy affordability crisis.
- 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.
- Why Is Getting A Heat Pump So Hard? (by Maximilian Auffhammer, July 1, 2024): Being a fully informed consumer when your air conditioner breaks causes anxiety.
- 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): Fewer California households have electric space heating and water heating than in the nation as a whole.
- 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.
- 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.
- California Needs to Decide If It Wants Low Carbon or Low Gasoline Prices (by James Bushnell, October 28, 2024): Criticism being leveled at the Low Carbon Fuel Standard should instead focus on the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.
- Cow Poop is Now a Big Part of California Fuel Policy (by Aaron Smith, January 22, 2024): The Low Carbon Fuel Standard, intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels, is providing excessive benefits to dairy biogas projects.
- 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.
- Should the Price of Electricity Depend On What You Use It For? (by Severin Borenstein, March 10, 2025): Would reduced rates just for EVs and heat pumps be a step in the right direction?
- Reality Checking California’s Income-Graduated Fixed Charge (by Severin Borenstein, May 13, 2024) After all of the heat of the debate, a bit of data analysis sheds some light.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- How To Fix the Solar Cost Shift (by Severin Borenstein, May 19, 2025): Without major rate reform progress will be slow and incomplete.
- Guess What Didn’t Kill Rooftop Solar (by Severin Borenstein, January 27, 2025): California’s solar industry is doing just fine despite their complaints about net energy metering reform.
- What’s Not Crushing California Rooftop Solar? (by Severin Borenstein, April 8, 2024): Bill savings from residential PV are as large now as a few years ago, but the industry is facing other big challenges.
- 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.
- Three Ways to Kill an Electric Vehicle (by James Sallee, April 28, 2025): Tariffs, rollbacks, and the IRA repeal threaten to stall America’s EV transition, just as it was beginning to scale.
- On Tariffs and the EV Transition (by James Sallee, May 20, 2024): The US needs to learn to stop worrying and love the Chinese auto industry.
- Putting the Brakes on E-Bikes (by Andrew Campbell, June 24, 2024): New tariffs on e-bikes will hurt the environment and our cities.
- International Trade Policies Subsidize Pollution (by Joseph Shapiro, May 1, 2020): Lower trade barriers on dirty industries effectively subsidize climate change.
- The Freedom to Buy Inefficient Products (by Andrew Campbell, June 9, 2025): If the DOE undoes minimum energy efficiency standards, which are decades old, consumer costs will likely rise.
- Three Ways to Kill an Electric Vehicle (by James Sallee, April 28, 2025): Tariffs, rollbacks, and the IRA repeal threaten to stall America’s EV transition, just as it was beginning to scale.
- What’s the Deal with the Power Plant Rule Repeal? (by Meredith Fowlie, June 23, 2025): The EPA case for regulatory repeal hinges on private sector cost reductions. Health and environmental impacts are not accounted for.
- Your Electricity Bill on (Wild)Fire (by Duncan Callaway, Meredith Fowlie and Cody Warner, August 26, 2024): How much of California’s power grid belongs underground?
- Fighting Fires in the Power Sector (by Duncan Callaway, Meredith Fowlie and Cody Warner, February 20, 2024): A burning question: How much are we willing to pay for utility wildfire risk mitigation?
Updated July 30, 2025