- Look through "best practice" publications (ACEEE, Governors, others?) to identify where our states excel.
- Use DSIRE to describe other RE & EE regulations and incentives.
- Look for anecdotal RE information: Sterzinger's bits on NV and MI, Greener Pathways report on PA wind manufacturing, OH governor piece on energy and jobs?
- Make spreadsheet of information that will be same for every state: energy mix, energy prices, projected energy use, imports/exports, how many major electric utilities, resource potential for RE, potential for RE manufacturing jobs, # cooling/heating degree days,
- Choose 2-3 most important environmental issues/Use ranking of environmental quality by states.
- Compile State of the State reports; Read SoS reports and identify 2-3 important points.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
23 April 2008
REORDERING
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
22 April 2008
Which states are the SE region? Heidi gave me a list; Census region 06 "east south central" is AL, KY, MS, TN. Census region 05 "south atlantic" is DE,FL,GA,MD,NC,SC,VA,WV.
TODAY
TOMORROW
TODAY
- Made template for Nevada and figured out most data sources.
- Spent too long trying to figure out how to use paltry state-level data on building energy use.
- 12 hours so far this week.
TOMORROW
- Compile State of the State reports
- Make spreadsheet of information that will be same for every state: energy mix, energy prices, projected energy use, imports/exports, how many major electric utilities, resource potential for RE, potential for RE manufacturing jobs, # cooling/heating degree days,
- Read SoS reports and identify 2-3 important points.
- Choose 2-3 most important environmental issues/Use ranking of environmental quality by states.
- Look for anecdotal RE information: Sterzinger's bits on NV and MI, Greener Pathways report on PA wind manufacturing, OH governor piece on energy and jobs?
- Look through "best practice" publications (ACEEE, Governors, others?) to identify where our states excel.
- Use DSIRE to describe other RE & EE regulations and incentives.
Monday, April 21, 2008
21 April 2008
TODAY
Read Public Investment memo - wrote email to James, didn't send
Began taking notes on RE&EE Incentives and current environmental issues in NV
Took step back and decided to outline what KIND of information I would find for each state
Spent some time looking at DOE WAP site and the 2006 evaluation of NV low-income energy assistance and weatherization program.
TOMORROW
Decide on exact categories of information I'll present in each area and begin compiling information.
Read Public Investment memo - wrote email to James, didn't send
Began taking notes on RE&EE Incentives and current environmental issues in NV
Took step back and decided to outline what KIND of information I would find for each state
Spent some time looking at DOE WAP site and the 2006 evaluation of NV low-income energy assistance and weatherization program.
TOMORROW
Decide on exact categories of information I'll present in each area and begin compiling information.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
15 April 2008
TODAY
Stayed home, began writing report on fossil fuel subsidies.
Worked 13 hours so far this week.
TOMORROW
Finish report on subsidies. Finish section on FOE report. Include info on Koplow's comparisons. Other reports - maybe government? Yes! Look first at the new (April 2008) EIA report. According to it, renewables currently get almost as much in subsidies as oil, natural gas, and coal combined!
Stayed home, began writing report on fossil fuel subsidies.
Worked 13 hours so far this week.
TOMORROW
Finish report on subsidies. Finish section on FOE report. Include info on Koplow's comparisons. Other reports - maybe government? Yes! Look first at the new (April 2008) EIA report. According to it, renewables currently get almost as much in subsidies as oil, natural gas, and coal combined!
Monday, April 14, 2008
CAP Outline
Sections I may be responsible for in bold
1. “Green Growth” and “Green-Collar Jobs”
Review various definitions
Our main point: we want policies to promote a clean environment and expand
employment.
o Defining individual jobs, or job classifications as “green collar” doesn’t
seem particularly helpful; and may well be a distraction.
2. How Clean Energy/Green Growth Policies Can Promote Employment Expansion
Analytically speaking, only two main possibilities:
o Import substitution (substituting domestic energy for foreign oil)
o Relatively greater labor intensity for clean energy/energy efficiency as
opposed to energy from fossil fuels
Role of capital projects versus ongoing operations and
maintenance
• Need a careful breakdown of types of jobs created and
numbers of jobs
• Need to discuss active labor market policies for training
and job placement
Lower degree of import leakages
In addition to these two main factors, two additional sources of increased
employment through clean energy agenda
o General public investments that promote efficiency
Greater employment/dollar of state expenditure
o Stronger employment multiplier
3. Strategies to promote Green Growth
Again, only two basic possibilities:
o Lower the private costs of renewable energy/energy efficiency
o Raise the cost of fossil fuels
o Go through discussion on each
o Need to emphasize short-run and long-run considerations
Foundation for short-run stimulus program
Clean energy strategies
o Conservation
Discuss programs in U.S., cities, other countries (e.g. Germany)
Centrality of increasing efficiency in built environment
• Technologies are known, highly adaptable, easily
dispersed, low import content
o Renewable energy
Measures for promoting R&D, installation
• Again, show state of activity, bring in examples
Raising costs of fossil fuels
o Can achieve this through reducing subsidies for fossil fuels, carbon tax, or
cap-and-trade variation
o Go through evidence on price elasticities
Asymmetry between price elasticity of consumer demand for fossil
fuels versus elasticity of GDP in response to fossil fuel price
change
• Consumer demand falls more in response to price increase
than GDP; reason is conservation
• Therefore, raising carbon prices (modestly) consistent with
program focused on conservation
o EPA growth estimates from Computable General Equilibrium model
Very modest negative growth effects
Model assumes full employment; takes no account of “benefits”
o Important issue of political viability as we have discussed at CAP
May therefore want to focus first on measures to lower clean
energy costs rather than raising fossil fuels costs
4. Magnitude of Program and Estimating Employment Impacts
Need to decide on reasonable size for program
o Roughly equal to current stimulus—about $150 billion?
Also size of Iraq war budget for 2007
Can develop as second-round short-term “stimulus” as well as long-term
growth program
o Need to break out spending in terms of conservation versus renewables
75 percent conservation?
Techniques for estimating employment effects
o Employment effects per dollar spent
o Employment effects per share of GDP on energy
o Employment per given supply of BTU energy
Not a viable approach
Compare employment effects with alternatives
o Status quo
o Current stimulus program
o Military spending?
Need to break out jobs as finely as possible
o Construction industry gets big boost
Excellent in terms of counteracting current housing market slump
Show quality as well as quantity of jobs
5. Details of Program
How to finance
Examples from other initiatives
o U.S. cities and states
o Other countries
6. Program as Part of Larger Public Investment Initiative
Bridges, water control, roads
Mass transit
Replacing rail lines
Evidence on public investment and employment
o Current evidence
o Analogies with other experiences, e.g. interstate highway system
7. State/Regional Breakdowns
Nevada, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, “Southeast”
Adapt national model to regional settings
Role of “imports” will differ with state-based models
1. “Green Growth” and “Green-Collar Jobs”
Review various definitions
Our main point: we want policies to promote a clean environment and expand
employment.
o Defining individual jobs, or job classifications as “green collar” doesn’t
seem particularly helpful; and may well be a distraction.
2. How Clean Energy/Green Growth Policies Can Promote Employment Expansion
Analytically speaking, only two main possibilities:
o Import substitution (substituting domestic energy for foreign oil)
o Relatively greater labor intensity for clean energy/energy efficiency as
opposed to energy from fossil fuels
Role of capital projects versus ongoing operations and
maintenance
• Need a careful breakdown of types of jobs created and
numbers of jobs
• Need to discuss active labor market policies for training
and job placement
Lower degree of import leakages
In addition to these two main factors, two additional sources of increased
employment through clean energy agenda
o General public investments that promote efficiency
Greater employment/dollar of state expenditure
o Stronger employment multiplier
3. Strategies to promote Green Growth
Again, only two basic possibilities:
o Lower the private costs of renewable energy/energy efficiency
o Raise the cost of fossil fuels
o Go through discussion on each
o Need to emphasize short-run and long-run considerations
Foundation for short-run stimulus program
Clean energy strategies
o Conservation
Discuss programs in U.S., cities, other countries (e.g. Germany)
Centrality of increasing efficiency in built environment
• Technologies are known, highly adaptable, easily
dispersed, low import content
o Renewable energy
Measures for promoting R&D, installation
• Again, show state of activity, bring in examples
Raising costs of fossil fuels
o Can achieve this through reducing subsidies for fossil fuels, carbon tax, or
cap-and-trade variation
o Go through evidence on price elasticities
Asymmetry between price elasticity of consumer demand for fossil
fuels versus elasticity of GDP in response to fossil fuel price
change
• Consumer demand falls more in response to price increase
than GDP; reason is conservation
• Therefore, raising carbon prices (modestly) consistent with
program focused on conservation
o EPA growth estimates from Computable General Equilibrium model
Very modest negative growth effects
Model assumes full employment; takes no account of “benefits”
o Important issue of political viability as we have discussed at CAP
May therefore want to focus first on measures to lower clean
energy costs rather than raising fossil fuels costs
4. Magnitude of Program and Estimating Employment Impacts
Need to decide on reasonable size for program
o Roughly equal to current stimulus—about $150 billion?
Also size of Iraq war budget for 2007
Can develop as second-round short-term “stimulus” as well as long-term
growth program
o Need to break out spending in terms of conservation versus renewables
75 percent conservation?
Techniques for estimating employment effects
o Employment effects per dollar spent
o Employment effects per share of GDP on energy
o Employment per given supply of BTU energy
Not a viable approach
Compare employment effects with alternatives
o Status quo
o Current stimulus program
o Military spending?
Need to break out jobs as finely as possible
o Construction industry gets big boost
Excellent in terms of counteracting current housing market slump
Show quality as well as quantity of jobs
5. Details of Program
How to finance
Examples from other initiatives
o U.S. cities and states
o Other countries
6. Program as Part of Larger Public Investment Initiative
Bridges, water control, roads
Mass transit
Replacing rail lines
Evidence on public investment and employment
o Current evidence
o Analogies with other experiences, e.g. interstate highway system
7. State/Regional Breakdowns
Nevada, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, “Southeast”
Adapt national model to regional settings
Role of “imports” will differ with state-based models
14 April 2008
TODAY:
Return to research on fossil fuel subsidies
Look for bill (from Feb 2008?) that would limit some of them
Jim referenced Bingaman and Clinton estimates - find these
Review other reports on the magnitude
FORMAT for REPORT:
Discuss difficulties of estimating the subsidies
List different types of subsidies
Review estimates from 4-6 sources
TOMORROW:
Find other reports that estimate magnitude/type of subsidies. Doesn't seem to be much recent stuff out there. Review Koplow (2006) and UCS (from 1995, I think). Try google scholar, other search engines.
Return to research on fossil fuel subsidies
Look for bill (from Feb 2008?) that would limit some of them
Jim referenced Bingaman and Clinton estimates - find these
Review other reports on the magnitude
FORMAT for REPORT:
Discuss difficulties of estimating the subsidies
List different types of subsidies
Review estimates from 4-6 sources
TOMORROW:
Find other reports that estimate magnitude/type of subsidies. Doesn't seem to be much recent stuff out there. Review Koplow (2006) and UCS (from 1995, I think). Try google scholar, other search engines.
Friday, April 11, 2008
11 Apr 2008
Heidi's presentation on the GA conference on Green Growth & Green Jobs:
1. What are green jobs? Do we need to define them? Some worry that the definition will be too narrow and the "results" from studies showing the potential for green job growth will show that it is small. MA asked whether jobs would be coded for product and process so the workplace environment, for example, is good as well as the product produced. JB said we need to think about the appropriate denominator. Jobs per...$, kWh, MtCO2e? MA pointed out that more labor is a cost in cost benefit analysis - why is it better that a program creates more jobs? JB talked about the shadow wage: wage*(1-unemp rate). HT: maybe most effective argument is just that green growth won't hurt the economy. JB: point out that unemployment rate set largely by macro policy, so green policies shift type of employment but not numbers.
2. Raising price of carbon and/or lowering cost of renewables? HGP said that industry reps there thought market shouldn't be interfered with because creates uncertainty. Didn't totally understand why that would be their viewpoint. JB: everyone would be for lowering cost of renewables. Questions is at what price and who wins and who loses. Said most politically tenable solution may be to redirect FF subsidies, but can't figure out wha the magnitude is. Bingaman's office said $20 billion annually. Hillary says $50 billion. JB: very little research on how elasticity of demand (for energy?) varies across income spectrum. There is a study of fuel use and auto ownership in the UK. Possible that elasticity is higher for poorer people, and may make carbon pricing less regressive, but should think about how cutting back affects quality of life. HGP: Need to think about what sort of border adjustments necessary to make carbon taxes politically feasible. JB: Illegal under PPM rules of WTO. Probably wouldn't affect competitiveness much. Hasn't seemed to in EU. [HAS anyone researched this?]
3. Nuclear/CCS
Long discussion of nuclear, but didn't write much on this. JB: Need to stop all new production and direct lots of money into figuring out how to deal with waste. If that question can be answered, then can start generating again. Also mentioned the value of resilience (gained, for example, through dist gen) and lack of attention to it among economists. MA: Erin Baker consulted experts in area of CCS and they implied that it will be relatively cheap to make it operable. [WANT to get her notes.]
4. Public Role
Consensus that we need massive energy efficiency project. [HAS demand for energy gone up linearly with GDP?] Discussed need for regulation - people don't pick up on market signals, short-sighted. MA: lots of topics in applying behavioral economics to environmental decisionmaking - behavioral case for regulations]. JB: Not just market-based vs. regulation vs. public investment. Need all three. [DISSERTATION topic: what is appropriate role for each?]
1. What are green jobs? Do we need to define them? Some worry that the definition will be too narrow and the "results" from studies showing the potential for green job growth will show that it is small. MA asked whether jobs would be coded for product and process so the workplace environment, for example, is good as well as the product produced. JB said we need to think about the appropriate denominator. Jobs per...$, kWh, MtCO2e? MA pointed out that more labor is a cost in cost benefit analysis - why is it better that a program creates more jobs? JB talked about the shadow wage: wage*(1-unemp rate). HT: maybe most effective argument is just that green growth won't hurt the economy. JB: point out that unemployment rate set largely by macro policy, so green policies shift type of employment but not numbers.
2. Raising price of carbon and/or lowering cost of renewables? HGP said that industry reps there thought market shouldn't be interfered with because creates uncertainty. Didn't totally understand why that would be their viewpoint. JB: everyone would be for lowering cost of renewables. Questions is at what price and who wins and who loses. Said most politically tenable solution may be to redirect FF subsidies, but can't figure out wha the magnitude is. Bingaman's office said $20 billion annually. Hillary says $50 billion. JB: very little research on how elasticity of demand (for energy?) varies across income spectrum. There is a study of fuel use and auto ownership in the UK. Possible that elasticity is higher for poorer people, and may make carbon pricing less regressive, but should think about how cutting back affects quality of life. HGP: Need to think about what sort of border adjustments necessary to make carbon taxes politically feasible. JB: Illegal under PPM rules of WTO. Probably wouldn't affect competitiveness much. Hasn't seemed to in EU. [HAS anyone researched this?]
3. Nuclear/CCS
Long discussion of nuclear, but didn't write much on this. JB: Need to stop all new production and direct lots of money into figuring out how to deal with waste. If that question can be answered, then can start generating again. Also mentioned the value of resilience (gained, for example, through dist gen) and lack of attention to it among economists. MA: Erin Baker consulted experts in area of CCS and they implied that it will be relatively cheap to make it operable. [WANT to get her notes.]
4. Public Role
Consensus that we need massive energy efficiency project. [HAS demand for energy gone up linearly with GDP?] Discussed need for regulation - people don't pick up on market signals, short-sighted. MA: lots of topics in applying behavioral economics to environmental decisionmaking - behavioral case for regulations]. JB: Not just market-based vs. regulation vs. public investment. Need all three. [DISSERTATION topic: what is appropriate role for each?]
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Climate Change bills pending consideration by Senate EPW committee
- S. 280: Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 (Introduced 2007 Jan 12. Lieberman-McCain. Obama and Clinton both co-sponsors)
- S. 309: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (Introduced 2007 Jan 16. Sanders. Only Democrats cosponsoring). GHG levels in 2050 80% below 1990 levels. Endorsed by a bunch of environmental groups.
- S. 1168: Clean Air/Climate Change Act of 2007 (Introduced 2007 Apr 19. Alexander and Lieberman) . 2011-2014, 2.3 bil MtCO2e; 2015-19, 2.1 bil; 2020-24, 1.8 bil, 2025 and after, 1.5 bil.
- S. 1766: Low Carbon Economy Act of 2007 (Introduced 2007 Jul 11. Bingaman-Specter.)
- S. 2191: America's Climate Security Act of 2007 (Introduced 2007 Oct 18. Lieberman-Warner.)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
8 April 2008
YESTERDAY and TODAY:
WANT TO READ:
- Thorough reading of Pinderhughes' GCJ report (ok) and Greener Pathways report (great). See Zotero notes.
- Read reports on two more economic models of S.2191 - Banks (Clean Air Task Force) and Murray and Ross (Duke U). Neither explicit about jobs - see notes in Zotero.
WANT TO READ:
- Recent "green job" heading posts on Grist
- US DOE "Annual Report on US Wind Power Installation, Cost, and Performance Trends"
- REPP reports on potential for domestic manufacturing of wind turbine components, apparently available at bluegreenalliance.org
- JEDI model used for wind sector (at EERE site listed in Pathways report)
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
2 April 2008
AFTERNOON
Organized folders
Read Nelson, Ackerman, et al. critique of the CRA model of S.2191. Great!
Began reading/taking notes on And now a word from their sponsors...
TOMORROW
Finish last item
Organized folders
Read Nelson, Ackerman, et al. critique of the CRA model of S.2191. Great!
Began reading/taking notes on And now a word from their sponsors...
TOMORROW
Finish last item
2 April 2008
THIS MORNING
Sent Bob draft of EPA analysis of S.2191 memo
NEXT
Proofread memo and clean up
Clean up folders/make folder with everything sent to Bob
Read other reports on S.2191 models and web critiques
Analysis of fossil fuel subsidies??
Sent Bob draft of EPA analysis of S.2191 memo
NEXT
Proofread memo and clean up
Clean up folders/make folder with everything sent to Bob
Read other reports on S.2191 models and web critiques
Analysis of fossil fuel subsidies??
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