Environment & Climate Change

524 Items

ethanol refinery with corn field in foreground

AP Photo/Stephen Groves, File

Analysis & Opinions - The Wall Street Journal

Will Using More Biofuels Be Good for the Environment? Two Experts Square Off.

| Jan. 21, 2023

In its push for greener energy, Washington is giving biofuels a boost. But just how green are they? Daniel Schrag, Co-Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, argued the case for biofuels, opposite Carlisle Ford Runge, who argued against them.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska., speaks during a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing

Pool via AP/Leigh Vogel

Analysis & Opinions - The Hill

Why Biden's Interior Department isn't Shutting Down Oil and Gas

| July 23, 2021

Joel Clement describes the influence of U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Joe Manchin over the Department of the Interior and advises that a forward-looking legislator in a fossil-fuel state would be wise to fight aggressively for financial commitments to make the people in their state part of the vanguard of the new clean energy economy, rather than set back the U.S. economy by fighting the inevitable energy transition itself.

Oil and gas drilling rig

Flickr CC/Mark Watson

Analysis & Opinions - Union of Concerned Scientists

Fossil Fuels and Public Lands: How the US Interior Department Can Act on Climate Right Now

| Apr. 06, 2021

Joel Clement describes some immediate opportunities—and emphasize specific recommendations—to establish the Interior Department as a purposeful catalyst for a fair and just transition to clean energy, healthy ecosystems, and thriving communities.

man wearing a shirt promoting TikTok

AP/Ng Han Guan

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

The Other Global Power Shift

| Aug. 06, 2020

Joseph Nye writes that the world is increasingly obsessed with the ongoing power struggle between the United States and China. But the technology-driven shift of power away from states to transnational actors and global forces brings a new and unfamiliar complexity to global affairs.

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is silhouetted near the words "Clean Energy"

AP/Ng Han Guan

Analysis & Opinions - Berkeley Blog

How to Globalize Clean Energy

| June 20, 2020

The authors argue that more determined efforts to globalize renewable energy transmission can confer significantly higher economic and environmental benefits from renewables on billions of people. This can be done by exploiting spatial differences between electricity loads and net renewable generation across time zones (temporal arbitrage) and latitude (seasonal arbitrage). Using very long distance, ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission infrastructure, temporal and spatial arbitrage can move low-cost clean electricity from areas with excess capacity to high demand zones in other countries and even continents.

Antwerp, Belgium Industrial Plant

AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

Analysis & Opinions

The Sunset of an Industrial Plant and the Global Decommissioning Challenge

| Sep. 24, 2019

After many years of productive service, industrial plants reach the end of their useful life and must be dismantled. This complex and costly process, know as decommissioning (commissioning refers to the beginning of a plant useful life), is a confluence of economic, environmental, physical, and regulatory challenges.

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Journal Article - Climatic Change

Expert Views — and Disagreements — About the Potential of Energy Technology R&D

| June 2016

In order to make R&D funding decisions to meet particular goals, such as mitigating climate change or improving energy security, or to estimate the social returns to R&D, policy makers need to combine the information provided in this study on cost reduction potentials with an analysis of the macroeconomic implications of these technological changes. The authors conclude with recommendations for future directions on energy expert elicitations.

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News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Study Examines Water Used for Fuel Extraction, Power Generation

January 26, 2016

A new study co-authored by researchers at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, and the University of Calgary provides the first comprehensive representation of changing water consumption patterns associated with fuel extraction and power generation.