Recently in Policy papers Category

All fifty governors signed on to a National Governor's Association letter asking congress to extend the renewable energy tax credits. The letter urges Congress to "extend, for at least five years, tax provisions that encourage the development of renewable energy sources and promote energy efficiency."

The letter also encouraged Congress to "continue to develop incentives for programs that help families and businesses use energy-efficient building techniques, materials, and equipment readily available in today's market. Extending incentives for energy efficiency and conservation will slow the growth of future energy needs, minimize ratepayer costs, and lessen potential environmental impacts"

The tax credits are a critical component in sustaining the renewable energy industry. Bart Ruth, policy committee chair of the 25x'25 National Steering Committee said, "The policies currently in place to develop and nurture non-fossil fuel based energy sources have been short term and in many cases intermittent. Such on-again, off-again policies have made long-term investment in new technologies and interest in renewable energy difficult to maintain," The full letter can be found here.

A briefing from the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University seeks policy changes that "place a greater emphasis on food prices and greenhouse gas reductions," which would in turn encourage a "transition away from current feedstocks toward those that do not reduce our ability to produce food." The report offers two biomass options that can facilitate breaking the food and fuel link: (1) Capturing biomass that is currently treated as waste or is a co-product of existing production processes and (2) Growing biomass on land that is not suitable for food production or to grow the biomass without using land at all (algae, for example). The report also offers three policy options that would further encourage the use of non-food biomass:

• Placing a hard cap on ethanol made from corn and on biodiesel made from refined vegetable oil.
• Target tax credits and fuel standards depending on the impact each biofuel feedstock has on food prices.
• Fund further research programs for biofuel feedstocks.

The full briefing can be found here.

In May 2008, the Brookings Institute released their report Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America. The report quantifies transportation and residential carbon emissions in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in 2000 and 2005. According to the report, "Residential density and the availability of public transit are important to understanding carbon footprints, as were the carbon intensity of electricity generation, electricity prices, and weather." Metro areas east of the Mississippi were relatively worse in GHG emissions. And the South particularly, had the largest carbon footprints of any region in both 2000 and 2005. In addition to system-wide changes, such as pricing carbon, establishing and RFS, and increasing R&D, the report also offered more particular suggestions for reducing GHG emissions in metro areas. These policy options included:

• Promoting more transportation choices;
• Introducing more energy-efficient freight operations;
• Requiring home energy cost disclosure when selling and "on-bill" financing;
• Using federal housing policy to create incentives for energy and location efficient decisions; and
  
• Issuing a metropolitan challange to induce innovative solutions.

The full report can be found here.

Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems, now runs Khosla Ventures with a priority on green technology, and specifically cellulosic ethanol. Below are a list of white papers looking at current ethanol issues:

Pragmentalists v. Environmentalists - Are hybrids reducing carbon emissions as much as we think they are? A comparison of the carbon reductions provided by current (and future) hybrid vehicles, vehicles run on cellulosic ethanol, and current gasoline powered vehicles.

Food vs Food - A response to the Foreign Affairs magazine article entitled "How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor."

More white papers can be found at the Khosla Ventures website.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) recently released the report Cornerstones: Building a Secure Foundation for North Carolina's Energy Future. The report recommends North Carolina take specific policy steps to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent in 2030. The recommendations fall under the four categories of energy efficiency, clean energy, pollution capture, and long-range planning. The full report can be found here.

The National Academy of Science has released its 2008 Understanding & Responding to Climate Change brochure. The easy to read brochure presents the findings of up to date climate change research by the NAS and puts them into a larger narrative. The brochure describes what is climate change; what research is indicating about current and future climate change; the science of green house gases; potential effects on humans; areas needed for future research; and how climate change science informs policy decisions. To read or obtain copies of the brochure visit the NAS climate change website.

A new report, Global Agricultural Supply and Demand: Factors Contributing to the Recent Increase in Food Commodity Prices, describes the numerous factors that have affected the price of global food commodities. The report, from USDA's Economic Research Service, provides a clear picture of both the long-term and short-term trends that are affecting food prices. Long-term trends include the combination of slower growth in production and rapid growth in demand that has decreased world grain and oilseed stocks. Short-term trends include:

• Adverse weather conditions in some major grain- and oilseed-producing countries
• Rising energy prices
• Increased global demand for biofuel feedstocks
• Declining value of the dollar
• Increasing agricultural costs of production
• Growing foreign exchange holding by major food-importing countries
• Policy decisions by some exporting and importing countries to mitigate food price inflation
• Entrance of hedge fund managers into commodity markets

The full report can be read here.

The Research, Education, and Extension arm of the US Department of Agriculture has developed a Strategic Energy Science Plan. The vision of the plan is to "grow a clean, efficient, sustainable energy future for America" with the goals of producing sustainable agriculture and natural resource-based energy production; sustainable bioeconomies for rural communities; efficient use of energy and energy conservation; and workforce development for the bioeconomy. A few of the interesting outcomes of the plan include:

• Certification systems to ensure sustainability of bioenergy and biobased products
• Whole life-cycle analysis of at least two regionally appropriate production systems
• Decision tools to help farmers, energy producers, and rural communities consider their participation in alternative-energy systems
• Triple the number of students in college- and university-based bioenergy and bioeconomy education programs.
  

The full report can be found here.

The Center for American Progress, a Washington DC-based think tank, recently summarized the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. The Act would create a cap and trade system that captures the cost of emitting carbon dioxide. According to the Center the bill would

"require carbon dioxide emitters to have 'allowances' for every ton of pollution they emit. Firms that reduce their emissions would need fewer allowances and those that don't would need to purchase more allowances."

The article outlines the details of the granting and auctioning of allowances and the potential economic and environmental impacts. The article can be found here.

Last week, 25x'25 released its Sustainability Principles at their 2008 annual summit in Omaha, Nebraska. The document was issued by the 25x'25 National Steering Committee with the purpose of guiding future 25x'25 work. The document defines sustainability as follows:

"Sustainability -- To be a long-term solution for America, renewable energy production must conserve, enhance, and protect natural resources and be economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable."

The 18 sustainability principles range from protecting air quality to ensuring renewable energy production has the same access to markets as fossil fuels. The full document can be accessed here.