Dissertation Idea

Use GIS maps to assess job potential from various energy/environmental projects - RE installation, public transit creation, energy efficiency, etc.

Tom's Harvard magazine had an article about PHEVs, but the environmental studies professor who wrote it also was studying wind potential across the US and there was a map of wind resources by state there.

Dissertation Idea

Create metric for analyzing success of energy policy measures on several fronts:
1. Environmental protection
2. Energy security
3. Job provision
4. Cost?
Maybe more of a polisci topic?

28 Feb 2008

TODAY
Finished Urban Agenda GCJs report. Went through it very slowly. :(

TOMORROW
Organize a memo and write synthesis of what I have learned so far. Think about section headings for types of "initiatives", like:
1a. Subsidized training programs
1b. Non-subsidized training programs
2a. Environmental initiatives, with job awareness
2b. Environmental initiatives, without job awareness
3. Policies/government projects/advisory councils
4. Service programs

Include discussion of existence of green collar jobs whenever an environmental initiative is carried out, even if jobs aren't explicit purpose. What does including job requirements in policy do? What kind of requirements should be included (e.g., training programs, pay/benefit requirements, type of individual recruited, union, etc.)? Need for demand for workers and supply of workers to match.

Questions to ask about environmental policies:
Will U.S. jobs be created, and if so, how many?
What kinds of jobs will be created (type, pay/benefits, union, education/experience necessary)?
Who will get the jobs?

Discuss who is studying green jobs and what kinds of reports are available.

27 Feb 2008

TODAY
Finished going through the case study section on the Green for All website. Ended up with 13 pages of their blurbs + notes on the various projects.
Began reading and taking notes on the Urban Agenda report on Energy Efficiency and GCJs in NYC.

TOMORROW
Synthesize what I learned so far and draft a memo for Bob that gives overview of
1. What is out there, as far as Green Collar job programs and research
2. Issues - what is the difference between an environmental initiative and a green collar job initiatve

Look into the Seattle green collar jobs site - referenced on the former Northwest Environment Watch website.

Clean up/put together memo on appearances of phrase Green Collar Jobs

Urban Agenda - Growing Green Collar Jobs: Energy Efficiency

http://www.greenforall.org/resources/ggcjenergyefficiency.pdf
Well-written and well-documented report on the types of jobs created by demand for energy efficiency in NYC. Good blend of description of energy efficiency improvements, descriptions of jobs created, information from and on people/organizaions working in these sectors. Very conscious of need to blend job requirements with energy efficiency legislation.

• Focus on NYC
• First report in a series
• Must ensure that jobs created by PlaNYC are "green collar jobs": "A green collar job is more than simply a job in an environmental field. It also provides a family sustaining wage, safe working conditions, and chances for career advancement" (3)
• Two definitions of environmental justice: Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of background or status, in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. The environmental justice movement responds to the reality that power plants, landfills and other environmental hazards are often sited in low-income communities and communities of color without their participation in the decision-making process.14 Environmental justice has also come to mean the equitable distribution of the benefits of the green economy: green collar jobs, community reinvestment, and clean technology.15 Organizations like the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) in LA, Sustainable South Bronx, the United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE), and Urban Agenda recognize that green collar jobs can help redress past injustice while creating economic opportunity.16
• Includes profiles: Miroslav (maintainance supervisor of a green apt building), Buddy (electrician who installs meters and wiring), Meghan (operating engineer), Bill (building superintendent, trainer, and unionmember),
• 10 The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) projects that its statewide energy efficiency and alternative energy programs will create and sustain, on average, more than 8,600 jobs over a 19-year period.34 Governor Eliot Spitzer, in his April 2007 address launching the 15 x 15 energy efficiency initiative, predicted that this initiative will create 41,000 jobs statewide.35
• List of tasks/projects involved in energy upgrades
• 10-11 Quite detailed description of knowledge needed by energy auditor
• 11 The creation of standardized job titles and skill requirements is in progress as the auditing field develops. At the moment, NYSERDA is leading the process. NYSERDA has developed a suite of energy efficiency incentive programs for existing buildings, and requires building owners to hire NYSERDAapproved auditors in order to receive incentives under the Multifamily Building Performance Program.
• 15 An extensive study of municipal building retrofits in Canada, conducted by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, estimated that every $1 million invested in building retrofits creates 20 person-years of employment, mainly in the construction phase.57
• 17 A lack of projects has slowed the adoption of energy efficiency skills by workforce development programs. The slow development of the energy efficiency workforce, especially in more specialized areas like auditing and energy engineering, has in turn reinforced the slow growth of energy efficiency projects.
• Reviews roadblocks to realizing efficiency gains; similar to Joel Rogers COWS paper
• 18 The median Standard Payback Time (SPT) for the average retrofit is now seven years for institutional facilities, four years for hospitals, and just three years for commercial, industrial, and office buildings.66
• 35 Statewide, low-income people spend, on average, up to 15 percent of their monthly income on energy. Eighty percent of these expenditures leave low-income communities, going to power companies rather than local businesses.81
• 36 The New York City Housing Authority administers the City’s public housing developments as well as the Section 8 housing voucher program. NYCHA’s 344 aging developments—some sixty years old—house 412,281 low-income New Yorkers, 5 percent of the City’s total population.89...NYCHA’s utility costs currently account for approximately 20 percent of the operating budget and 37 have increased over 42 percent in the last few years.90 In this context, energy efficiency programs that lower the costs of operating NYCHA housing are especially important.
• 20,37 - Energy efficiency upgrades in affordable housing stymied by delays in HUD approval for using capital funds
• 31 Discusses need for maintenence staff to understand and be on board with energy efficiency requirements
• 24 Meter Service Providers use smart meters, real-time pricing, and sophisticated mapping tools to pinpoint when and how their clients use energy. Create energy management plans. Staff includes meter readers, analysts, billers, accountants, electricians, metering technicians, IT professionals, engineers, and project managers.
• 25 Companies in the emerging field of strategic energy asset management can help large power consumers tap into government demand-response programs by reducing their reliance on power from the grid at times of peak system usage, and collecting the targeted government subsidies...Jobs in strategic energy asset
• management include: • Account managers. Account managers work with client facilities managers to design the energy management program. • Energy analysts. Energy Analysts advise clients on how to tap into market-based opportunities, such as carbon trading or renewable energy credits.
• 26 Yet, the biggest hurdle to growing green collar jobs in this field may be the skill levels required for some positions. While ConsumerPowerline has beenable to recruit qualified meter installers from the telecommunications industry and utility companies, they have had more difficulty finding staff members who possess the requisite level of engineering, energy, or financ experience to be managers or analysts. Izzi explains, “A lot of these jobs aren’t established within a career services office….[Many people] might not have the track record for doing what we want to do.”
• 27 Offers recommendations on Green Collar Jobs:

• Working with the Workforce Investment Board (WIB) to collect workforce, employer, training, and education data in emerging green industries.

• Creating a Green Workforce Career Center to:

• identify and address barriers to industry and
workforce growth;
• develop green collar employment and training
programs, including sector specific training and
advanced training for technical an professional
jobs;
• support green technology R&D and expose
workers to new technology and skills;
• create referral, placement, and job retention services
in partnership with labor and the public and
private sectors; and
• support the creation of green collar career ladders
in growth industries.129

• Developing a Green Collar Jobs Corps to help New Yorkers succeed in the City’s expanding green economy. A Green Collar Jobs Corps would:
  

• identify and recruit New York City’s structurally
unemployed and underemployed;
• develop comprehensive training and education
programs to prepare entry-level, incumbent, and
transitional workers for permanent green collar
employment;
• provide paid green collar work experience at prevailing
wages;
• work with unions and the private sector to develop
placement and referral services for Corps graduates;
• involve New York City’s existing support services,
training, and job placement programs; and
• ensure that Corps participants do not displace existing
workers.

• 28 Emphasizes that job "supply" creation must be combined with governmental measures to create demand: efficiency mandates, carbon reduction emission mandates, support of green businesses, etc.
• 30 PlaNYC: If all of the PlaNYC 2030 efficiency initiatives are implemented, the City projects a 14 to 15 percent reduction in energy consumption citywide by 2015.6 Ten percent of the
• 2007 municipal energy budget—$81.2 million—has been earmarked for municipal building energyefficiency improvements, and the Plan proposes making this annual allotment permanent.7
• 35 Lack of energy auditors: Richard Cherry, President and CEO of the Community Environmental Center (CEC), sees the lack of qualified auditors and engineers as “the major bottleneck” in growing the energy efficiency market. “No one is coming out of schools trained in energy auditing work,” he explains. Yet, CEC Green Building Specialist Katherine Carredu notes, “There is a great demand for people with computer skills and building mechanical-system knowledge who can perform the energy modeling analyses for new and existing buildings of all types.” Organizations like CEC are competing for the same workers with engineering firms and corporation who can pay larger salaries.78
• 39 Commissioning and retro-commissioning = assessment, testing, and balancing of a building's systems and controls. If possible, should be person who designed the building's energy systems. If not, engineer.

Green Jobs Act follow up

Learned from this FAQ sheet - http://www.greenforall.org/resources/faq_greenjobsact07.pdf
that the 2007 Energy bill authorized but did not appropriate $125 million for the Green Jobs training program. Expect this to be done in late 2008, despite the fact that several parts of the program are supposed to begin 6 months after passage (June 2008).
Also describes the 5 parts of the program and how much money is going to each.

26 Feb 2008

Met with Bob yesterday to talk about work plan and dissertation ideas.

Work plan:
1. Case studies of [job creation through green growth?] Bob mentioned Hermann Scheer's book Solar Economy and said there may be some international examples in there.
2. Types of subsidies given to fossil fuels. Different definition of subsidies.
3. Criticisms of green growth plans. E.g., the governor of Kansas has apparently come under criticism for his. Learn why.

Plan of attack:
Compile sources for #1 (and maybe #2). Begin with Green for All website.

Dissertation discussion:
Mostly comforting - talked about how it's natural to have vague ideas at this point.
Technical stuff should follow ideas, not other way around.
Anything having to do with green collar jobs will be useful and make a contribution.
I mentioned public/private several times - Bob noticed this
Tradeoff between clean energy and jobs? e.g., what if could Reduce GHGs by 90% w/ no jobs vs. reduce GHGs by 70% with lots of job creation.
Program evals of green growth jobs creation plans.

END OF DAY
Spent day going through resources page at Green for All website http://www.greenforall.org/resources/spotlight.html
Followed leads where appropriate; ended with Richmond, CA
Seems like a number of cities have projects in the works, but few have begun projects. Not a whole lot of information available on the programs.
New report to come out in March 2008 (?) with case studies - a guide for cities in creating Green Collar jobs, sponsored by Apollo Alliance, CAP, COWS.
Questions: Many "green collar jobs" are created through projects to reduce energy use/clean up environment - are we looking for projects that explicitly name job creation as an objective? Need to clarify what, exactly, I am looking for.

TOMORROW
Begin with Solar Richmond and continue down list.
Look over the Sources page for other reports/online resources that could be easily found.
Move on to fossil fuel subsidies if break is needed.

Energy efficiency and jobs - Nov 2007 - COWS

SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY (FOR CLIMATE, JOBS, AND EQUITY) IN
BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY
http://www.cows.org/pdf/rp-energyefficiency.pdf

• 300 billion sq ft of building space in US
• Given huge potential, asks why market for retrofits doesn't work
• Barriers to realizing savings from retrofits: poor info, lack of access to capital, split incentives (you pay energy bill but don't own property), limited tenancy, fear of disruption from retrofitting, risk aversion/skepticism, competing alternative uses of capital
• How to fix: radically lowered risk and transaction costs for owners/tenants AND reliable capture of savings for external investors
• Presents an organizational model to achieve these goals with 6 entities: coordinator (calls it E2 - gov't, public-private, NGO, etc.), utility that puts E2 efficiency services on bill, energy customer willing to pay for retrofit work on bill if repayment lower than energy savings, bank willing to loan money to E2 if can aggregate large number of customers, energy auditor, contractor

Community Jobs in the Green Economy - Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat - 2007

http://www.cows.org/pdf/rp-communityjobs_040307.pdf

Profiles of workers in green industries - shows pathways from training programs/apprenticeships through attainment of high-wage jobs

Energy Efficiency Retrofit Jobs
• Auditing energy use in existing buildings
• Manufacturing materials and devices
• Installing efficient lighting and heating systems
• Installing insulation, windows, and appliances

Jobs in Solar PV
• Manufacturing parts for solar PV systems
• Assembling solar panels
• Installing solar panel systems on rooftops
• Maintaining and repairing solar PV systems

Wind Energy Jobs
• Manufacturing parts for wind turbines and towers
• Constructing wind farms
• Operating and maintaining wind turbines

Solar Water Heater Jobs
• Manufacturing parts
• Assembling finished heating systems
• Installing the heaters
• Providing regular maintenance
• Marketing and selling systems to consumers

Geothermal Heat Pump Jobs
• Manufacturing equipment and parts
• Installing the heat pump system

Renewable Fuel Jobs
• Growing and harvesting crops for feedstock
• Collecting waste oils for feedstock
• Manufacturing parts for production facilities
• Constructing production facilities
• Working in the production facility
• Distributing and marketing fuel

• Many of the clean energy strategies that we recommend in New Energy for Cities [an Apollo Alliance report] involve some sort of government subsidy or tax break to private companies that produce, buy, sell or distribute energy efficient or clean energy products. Cities can and should attach job quality and job training standards to these types of subsidies to achieve greater public benefit.
• Tactics: apprentice utilization requirements [through Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), the agreements between units of government and contractors carrying out publicly funded projects]; local hiring policies; wage policies; give extra renewable energy credits to utilities that have apprenticeship/training program; community benefits agreements
• p18 Workforce intermediaries (WIs), also known as “regional training partnerships,” are partnerships among regional economic development stakeholders, including businesses, unions, technical and community colleges, job training programs, community organizations, and local an state workforce development officials. Rather than being one-size-fits-all approaches, they are place-specific partnerships that work to develop and implement pathways for career advancement and family supporting employment for low-skill workers. Successful WIs in Milwaukee, San Antonio, Seattle. No real headway into green economy yet.
• p19 Profiles of LA and Richmond, CA.
  
• City of of LA commissioned a study to identify which sectors of the energy economy the city already has in place; and then to determine which of these sectors currently provide high-quality jobs and career ladder opportunities. http://www.economicrt.org/summaries/Green_Tech_synopsis.html . LA Apollo Alliance also identifying public buildings ripe for retrofitting.
• City of Richmond, CA enlisted Urban Habitat to help create a green development plan
• Good resource list; contains most of the RE&EE/jobs reports that Heidi refers to
  

Green New Deal - The Corps Network - 7 pager

http://www.greenforall.org/resources/greennewdeal.pdf


The “Green New Deal” and Service and Conservation Corps
Sally T. Prouty, President and CEO, The Corps Network

• The Corps Network, as a member of the Green Jobs and Service Collaborative, calls for a “Green New Deal” [Could not find any other web info on the green jobs and service collaborative]
• Explicit goal - to change lives of disconnected young people

The Green Jobs and Service Collaborative’s Green New Deal

• We propose $10 billion in new funds over the coming decade for enhanced national environmental service combating climate change, including Americans of all ages but with prime focus on a Clean Energy Corps, where low-income disconnected young men and women in Service and Conservation Corps would improve energy efficiency in their communities while preparing for jobs in the green economy.
• We also propose $50 billion for state and local green jobs development during that time, to provide low-income and working-class Americans with the training and other assistance they need to gain jobs in the clean energy economy. At least half this new investment should go toward job preparation, matching, and retention efforts for the unemployed or poor. This investment will pay for itself in direct energy savings, increased worker productivity, reduced social service and health costs, and reduced green house gas emissions.
• $140 billion for a revolving loan fund will help to capitalize this work. Supplemented with other public dollars from states and cities, and used throughout to leverage private capital investment, the fund would be paid for through realized energy savings.
• Green Jobs and Service Collaborative (institutional affiliations for identification purposes only)—Jeremy Hays (Apollo Alliance), Bracken Hendricks (Center for American Progress), Van Jones (Ella Baker Center for Human Rights/Green for All), Ian Kim (Ella Baker Center), Billy Parish (Energy Action Coalition), Sally Prouty (The Corps Network), Joel Rogers (UW-Madison/ COWS/Center for State Innovation), Gene Sofer (Susquehanna Group), Lisbeth Shepherd (Innovations in Civic Participation), Susan Stroud (Innovations in Civic Participation).

[Revolving loan fund definition: A loan is made to a business and as repayments are made, funds become available for new loans to other businesses.]

• Cites the ASES RE&EE job figures
• In low-income communities, weatherization has been an economic stimulus, supporting 8,000 technical jobs in low income communities nationwide, which represents 52 jobs for every $1 million invested by the Department of Energy. Increasing the number of homes weatherized an other conservation investments will create new jobs. According to a cost-benefit analysis conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, every dollar invested in weatherization produces $3.71, of which $1.83 is energy-related benefits and $1.88 is non-energy-related.5 [5 US Department of Energy, “Non-Energy Benefits of Weatherization, January 2003,” p. 1, summarizing results of Martin Schweitzer and Bruce Tonn, Non-Energy Benefits from the Weatherization Assistance Program, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, April, 2002.]
• Within AmeriCorps, and as a sizable new initiative, the Clean Energy Corps will take
  environmental service to scale, using the experienced infrastructure of America’s Service
  and Conservation Corps. We propose funding at $300 million a year for a decade.
  Annually this would increase the number of Corpsmembers to 40,000, double the number
  of Corps, result in 2 million hours of service, and generate over half a million unpaid
  volunteers in green service.
• Examples: Weatherization corps projects in MT, OH CA; Light and water household retrofits in Denver; Rebuild or retrofit houses in WI
  

CAP 5-pager on GCJs in DC

http://www.greenforall.org/resources/cap-bracken.pdf

Hendricks and Goldstein, Ctr for Am Prog, 5 Oct 2007

• Cites ASES (Mgmt Info System) report on number of RE&EE jobs
• "Green collar jobs are quite diverse, covering a host of environmentally-related employment opportunities from entry level unskilled labor, to technical positions requiring certification, to professions based on college or graduate degrees."
• "For the purposes of the DC effort, the largest opportunities and central goals are to develop small businesses and a labor market capable of filling the pipeline of demand created by 1) the new Green Building Law, 2) potential responses to storm water management policies, 3) forthcoming comprehensive energy policies, 4) lead paint abatement, 5) river restoration, and 6) a city-wide commitment to reducing carbon emissions to fight climate change."
• LSDBE - Local, Small, Disadvantaged Business Enterprises
• 3 strategies for GCJ workforce development: apprenticeship and training - union- and employer-based; assisting local firms to participate in green markes; recruiting regional/national firms to locate in area
• To move forward quickly in developing this effort, the following should be top priority
  • Who can we bring to the table now, in job training and on the employer side?
  • What employers and industries can move most quickly into creating green collar
  jobs?
  • What public and non-profit programs can be easily expanded or enhanced to
  serve the green collar jobs market?
  • What additional research needs must be answered in the short term to design an
  effective and strategic program?
  

GIS resources

National atlas
http://www-atlas.usgs.gov/natlas/Natlasstart.asp

NREL GIS data
http://www.nrel.gov/gis/

12 Feb 2008

Today:
Met about DC proposal. Bob will send responses to questions today.
Looking through CAP proposal and CAP env/energy website.
Watched video for Capturing the Energy Opportunity - more show than substance
Bush's energy budget analysis: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/02/energy_budget.html
More support for fossil fuels, less for renewable energy, cutting efficiency/weatherization funding.
Says Science articles on biofuel show need for sustainable fuels; cites jobs associated with ethanol production.
Bush pulled FutureGen (first big CCS demo project) off line due to cost overruns.
House hearing on cap-and-trade in Jan - should auction rather than give away. Discuss some problems with European system, including giveaway, lack of transparency, constant rule changes. Podesta advocated 10/45/45 plan outline in CAP's report.
[Check Washington Post article on green jobs; also Time magazine and CNN feature on Situation room]
Van Jones' Green Collar jobs article on Huffington Post, good links to green collar programs: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/memo-to-candidates-green_b_82967.html

Second WSJ post on Environmental Capital blog about Green Collar Jobs http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/02/01/take-two-green-collar-jobs/
reviews different definitions of the term. We've come across most of them: cites Pinderhughes (blue collar jobs in green businesses); ASES report (90% are "light green collar" like lawyers, accountants, etc.) and the Green Collar Careers blog (http://greencollar.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/green-collar-subjects-and-sectors-part-1/).

NPR Green Collar Jobs story (3 min)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17307587
Bay area shortage in GCJs. Gov't run training program in Richmond - interview trainee. Interviews Pinderhughes. Defines GCJs as manual labor jobs in green industries.

Notes on Bob's CAP Proposal:
Public investment on public-sector-led initiatives is most effective short-term policy intervention - should finance green growth initiatives, esp. new building construction and retrofitting.
Questions in need of further explication -
1. C/B analysis & credible estimates of gov't expenditures needed to make CAP program elements effective (e.g., low-carbon transport infrastructure)
2. Employment effects (compared to BAU)
3. Regional effects: Differences in effective policies in different regions. How are C/Bs distributed among regions and how to be fair?
4. Need to have solid grasp of 1-3 to ensure effectiveness as countercyclical policy.

Proposed study - study series of alternate growth paths:
0. BAU energy infrastructure; S-R and L-R scenarios
1. Cap and trade - problematic on its own, since imposes new costs on producers and consumers
2. Cap and redistribute on progressive basis (Jim Boyce's paper)
3. Divide revenues between redist and green investments. CAP study proposes 10% transitional assistance, 45% to low-income households, 45% to new green growth investments (of $746 billion over 2009-2018). But is $335 billion over 10 years enough to support green investments and provide effective countercyclical measure? Small % of military budget.
4. Appropriate level of fiscal support for green initatives decided through C/B analysis, employment effects, regional effects, countercyclical effects.

Employment effects of alternative spending targets, a la the demilitarization report, but more extensive and carefully specified. Also provide region-by-region estimates.

Employment effects of state-level public investment programs
PERI study showing that public investment (not just public spending) correlated with higher job growth.
For CAP study, will synthesize relative employment effects analysis with public investment as job creator analysis. Can also generate relative distributional effects.

Reviewed Bob & Heidi's demilitarization report: http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/other_publication_types/PERI_IPS_WAND_study.pdf
Were not able to look at renewable energy, since info wasn't yet available. Possible to do more thorough study for CAP lacking this, and probably other, data?
Used IMPLAN?
[Bob and James' study referenced in CAP proposal not yet available.]

Intro to IMPLAN - from Univ of FL
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FE168
Basic (serves non-local markets) and service (serves local markets) industries. Not differentiated based on what they produce, but who they produce for. Division helps direct and indirect effects.

Renewable Energy Access - 9 Feb 2008

Feed in tariff good for Germany, not right for US
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/recolumnists/story;jsessionid=6525A7D0C06BFF51CD515B11ABB42CE8?id=51362

RE firms compete for talent in tight markets
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story;jsessionid=6525A7D0C06BFF51CD515B11ABB42CE8?id=51408

Cambridge Energy Research Associates report - Future of Clean Energy
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/infocus/story;jsessionid=6525A7D0C06BFF51CD515B11ABB42CE8?id=51396

First commercial-scale tidal energy installation in Ireland
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=51414

RE&EE Workforce Training Conference- Hudson Valley Community College
https://www.hvcc.edu/energyconference/

11 Feb 2008

Today:
Pick up where I left off with McCain-Lieberman bill. When done with PPT report, look through excel spreadsheets to try to better understand model.
Familiarize with all federal CC legislation.
Look at state/regional/local CC legislation.

End of day:
Finished taking notes on M-L bill. Held off on looking more closely at models (if this is even possible. May be proprietary). Combed through economic analysis performed by EIA and took some notes, not as extensively.
Began looking at Low Carbon Economy Act (Sen Bingaman) and taking notes.
Discussed statistical questions posed by DC people with Heidi. Difficult to know up front what survey will look like or who to include.
Read quickly through CAP proposal.

Tomorrow:
9:30 meeting to discuss DC questions
Read through DC proposal
Begin thinking about CAP stuff? - See what DC meeting brings up.

8 Feb 2008

Today: Review of climate change legislation and gov't agency economic analyses
1. Read popular accounts of what is contained in legislation - take notes on main parts. Try to gauge how much support there is, likelihood of passing.
2. Comb through actual legislation to fill in holes.
3. Look at economic analyses and try to understand how model worked and what assumptions were made, particularly concerning discount rate, assumed cost increases, price of carbon, etc.

Began with McCain-Lieberman act - see memo. Still going through the "full report" which is in powerpoint form. Resume on p. 61 of PDF.

7 February 2008

Got CAP project - awaiting details/instructions. Bob said they mentioned McCain-Lieberman bill and Stern Review. Will look these over.
Looked over Washington DC RFP and related documents.

EPA page of economic analyses of climate change mitigation programs:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/economics/economicanalyses.html

6 February 2008

Completed summary of 2007 energy bill and sent to Bob
Continued memo on biomass stats.

Tomorrow:
Search US code for references to biomass/biofuel: http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml

5 February 2008

Continued summary of 2007 Energy Bill - purpose is to give idea of what is in bill (which technologies/programs are being supported) and to give appropriation amount, if available.
Later - compare this to CAP report. Many similar programs, but need to check for differences in content/scope/funding.

Tomorrow
1. Finish summary, filling in details on biofuels and CAFE parts (4 hours).
2. Finish biofuels/biomass memo - incorporate findings from Ann's printouts and ask Heidi about biomass job findings. Check the major energy/employment reports (Kammen, etc.)

4 February 2008

Energy bill/energy legislation memo for Bob:
H.R.6 - Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007.
Passed 13 Dec 2007

Text of bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.6.ENR:

ENR committee 2-page summary of HR-6: http://energy.senate.gov/public/_files/HR6EnergyBillSummary.pdf

Internal Revenue Code of 1986: Sec. 45 - Electricity produced from certain renewable resources, etc. http://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Internal_Revenue_Code:Sec._45._Electricity_produced_from_certain_renewable_resources%2C_etc.


Tomorrow:
1. Finish memo about energy bill - be sure to focus on biomass/biofuel. Also, add bit about current PTCs for biomass.
2. Work on biomass fact sheet.