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CLIMATE
CHANGE
Allocating Allowances in a Greenhouse Gas Trading System.
National Commission in Energy Policy,
March 2007
http://www.energycommission.org/files/contentFiles/
Allocating_Allowances_in_a_Greenhouse_Gas_
Trading_System_45f71a5fb536b.pdf
This paper aims to promote a better
shared understanding of allocation: what it is, why it matters, and how
policy-makers might go about designing an approach that is not only politically
viable, but that fairly distributes the net burdens of regulation and seeks to
maximize benefits to stakeholders and society as a whole. Reaching a consensus
on allocation will not be easy--the subject is inherently complex and many of
the decisions involved are fundamentally distributional in nature, making them
difficult to adjudicate in a manner that satisfies all parties. Moreover,
allocation debates are easily confounded by misperceptions, common among many
stakeholders, about how allocation decisions do and do not affect the way an
emissions trading program works in practice.
A Comparison of a Cap & Trade System v. Alternative Policies
to Reduce U.S.
Greenhouse Gases.
Presentation to the George C. Marshall
Institute, Dr. Michael E. Canes, February 2007
http://www.marshall.org/pdf/materials/501.pdf
In this PowerPoint presentation, the
author finds that the U.S. record in reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity
through investment in R&D and voluntary partnership programs, and the
prospective costs of a cap and trade system, suggest that the policy of
continuing to develop and promote adoption of less GHG-intensive technologies
without adversely affecting GDP is the best choice.
Global Scale Climate--Crop Yield Relationships and the
Impacts of Recent Warming.
David Lobell,
Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, and Christophe Field, Department
of Global Ecology, Stanford, March 2007
http://ej.iop.org/links/roFKK20Fs/DJ4KuNfd2xGyW_Jvav5vpA/erl7_1_014002.pdf
Changes in the global production of
major crops are important drivers of food prices, food security and land use
decisions. Average global yields for
these commodities are determined by the performance of crops in millions of
fields distributed across a range of management, soil and climate regimes. Despite the complexity of global food supply,
simple measures of growing season temperatures and precipitation explain ~30% or
more of year-to-year variations in global average yields for the world's six
most widely grown crops. For wheat, maize and barley, there is a clearly
negative response of global yields to increased temperatures. Based on these sensitivities and observed
climate trends, the authors estimate that warming since 1981 has resulted in
annual combined losses of these three crops representing roughly 40 Mt or $5
billion per year, as of 2002.
While these impacts are small relative to the technological yield gains
over the same period, the results demonstrate already occurring negative impacts
of climate trends on crop yields at the global scale.
U.S. State and Regional Action on Climate
Change.
Patrick Hogan, Pew Center
on Global Climate Change, 2007 EIA Energy Outlook, Modeling, and Data
Conference, March 28, 2007
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/conf/pdf/hogan.pdf
The Energy Information Administration
hosted its fifteenth annual 2007 EIA Energy Outlook, Modeling, and Data
Conference on March 28, 2007. In this PowerPoint presentation, Patrick Hogan
describes the state actions across the country, their GHG emissions targets and
the regional initiatives.
ENERGY
Advanced Energy Technologies: Key Challenges to Their
Development and Deployment.
U.S. GAO, February 28, 2007
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-550T
DOE's budget authority for energy R&D, when
adjusted for inflation, fell 85 percent from its peak in fiscal year 1978 to
fiscal year 2005. Energy R&D funding in the late 1970s was robust in response to
constricted oil supplies and an ensuing energy crisis, but R&D funding plunged
when oil prices returned to their historic levels in the mid-1980s.
DOE's R&D efforts have resulted in steady incremental progress in
reducing costs for renewable energy, reducing harmful emissions of coal-fired
power plants, and improving safety and efficiency for nuclear energy.
Nevertheless, the nation's dependence on conventional fossil fuels remains
virtually the same as 30 years ago.
The Future of Coal.
Options for a Carbon-Constrained World.
MIT, March 2007
http://web.mit.edu/coal/The_Future_of_Coal.pdf
This report evaluates the technologies
and costs associated with the generation of electricity from coal along with
those associated with the capture and sequestration of the carbon dioxide
produced coal-based power generation. Growing electricity demand in the U.S. and in the
world will require increases in all generation options (renewables,
coal, and nuclear) in addition to increased efficiency and conservation in its
use. Coal will continue to play a significant role in power generation and as
such carbon dioxide management from it will become increasingly important. This
study discusses the interrelated technical, economic, environmental and
political challenges facing increased coal-based power generation while managing
carbon dioxide emissions from this sector.
TXU’S
Expansion Proposal: A Risk for Investors.
Ceres, February 25, 2007
http://www.ceres.org/pub/docs/TXU_report.pdf
Electric utilities have proposed 153 new
coal-fired power plants with a combined 93GW of capacity across the United States.
These new plants posed wide-ranging financial risks for investors, including
shareholders of the power companies and of the banks financing the project. Of
particular concern is a proposal by TXU Corp. to build eleven new coal-fired
electric power units in Texas with a combined
capacity of 9,000 MW and at an estimated cost of $10 billion.
OCEANS
Charting the Course for Ocean Science in the United States
for the Next Decade: An Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation
Strategy.
Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and
Technology, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), January 26, 2007
http://ocean.ceq.gov/about/docs/orpp21607.pdf
This report is the first national effort
to establish research priorities and interactions between society and the ocean.
The report proposes that ocean science research focus on the following:
forecast ocean
and ocean-influenced processes and phenomena; support scientific ecosystem
management; deploy an ocean-observing system; and assess the meridional overturning variability. These priorities will improve the
understanding of the ocean's role in climate change.
U.S. Ocean Policy Report Card.
Joint Ocean
Commission Initiative. January 30, 2007
http://www.jointoceancommission.org/images/report-card-06.pdf
This "report card" assesses progress
made during the past year toward implementing recommendations made by the U.S.
Commission on Ocean Policy for improving the health, productivity, and
sustainability of oceans, coasts, and the Great Lakes. The 2006 overall grade is a C- (up from a D+
in 2005). During 2007, the Joint
Initiative will continue to pursue governance reform, scientific advances, and
funding initiatives at the congressional, administrative, regional and state
levels.
FUELS AND
BIOFUELS
Passenger
Vehicle Fuel Economy: Preliminary Observations on Corporate Average Fuel Economy
Standards.
U.S. GAO, March 6, 2007
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-551T
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA), the agency responsible for setting Corporate Average
Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars and light trucks--such as sport utility
vehicles, minivans and pickup trucks--recently raised CAFE standards for light
trucks to reduce oil use and restructured this part of the program to help
address safety, among other issues.
The CAFE standard for cars, however, has changed little over the past 2
decades. In 1975, Congress established CAFE standards for cars rising to 27.5
miles per gallon by 1985 but did not allow NHTSA to restructure how car
standards are applied. As part of the administration's plan to meet the
President's recently stated goal to reduce oil use by 20 percent over the
administration's projected levels by 2017, the NHTSA Administrator submitted a
plan to Congress that would allow NHTSA to reform the car CAFE program in a
manner similar to NHTSA's recent changes to the light
truck program.
The Promise of Biofuels. A Homegrown Approach to Breaking America's Oil Addiction.
Progressive Policy Institute, David J. Hayes, Roger Ballentine, & Jan Mazurek, March
2007
http://www.ppionline.org/documents/Biodiesel_030607.pdf
There are many reasons to promote biofuels like ethanol, biodiesel,
and the coming generation of so-called "cellulosic"
variants. The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) shares proponents' enthusiasm
about the great promise of biofuels. But PPI believes policymakers must temper their
expectations with two important caveats, which should have a direct bearing on
government initiatives. First, there is a natural limit to the amount of corn
that U.S.
farmers can grow to produce today's standard type of ethanol. At best, it is
estimated that America can
produce about 14 billion gallons of biofuels from corn
without seriously disrupting feed and food markets. That would constitute less
than 10 percent of the country's current annual motor fuel needs. The real
promise of biofuels
will be realized when the next generation of cellulosic
biofuels can be brought to market.
RENEWABLES
Weighing
the Costs and Benefits of State Renewables Portfolio
Standards: A
Comparative Analysis of State- Level Policy Impact Projections.
Cliff Chen, Ryan Wiser, and Mark Bolinger, March 2007
http://www.cleanenergyfunds.org/library/Reports/
LBL_Costs_and_Benefits_State_RPS.pdf
State renewables
portfolio standards (RPS) have emerged as one of the most important policy
drivers of renewable energy capacity expansion in the U.S. Collectively, these policies now apply to
roughly 40% of U.S.
electricity load, and may have substantial impacts on electricity markets,
ratepayers, and local economies. This report synthesizes and analyzes the
results and methodologies of 28 distinct state or utility level RPS cost impact
analyses completed since 1998. Together, these studies model proposed or adopted
RPS policies in 18 different states. The authors highlight the key findings of
these studies on the costs and benefits of state RPS policies, examine the
sensitivity of projected costs to model assumptions, assess the attributes of
different modeling approaches, and suggest possible areas of improvement for
future state RPS analysis.
HURRICANE
Katrina
Index: Tracking Recovery of New Orleans and the Metro
Area.
In collaboration with the Greater New
Orleans Community Data Center, March 2007
http://www.gnocdc.org/KI/KatrinaIndex.pdf
Eighteen months after Hurricane Katrina,
housing indicators are mixed, and economic indicators may be showing the first
signs of increasing employment, but infrastructure indicators remain basically
stalled. With hurricane season less than three months away, officials must take
quick action to eliminate excessive red tape to ensure the flow of stalled
federal recovery dollars to the
Gulf Coast.
WASTES
Low-Level
Radioactive Waste Management: Approaches Used by Foreign Countries May Provide
Useful Lessons for Managing U.S.
Radioactive Waste.
U.S. GAO, March 2007
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-221
Academic, industrial, medical, utility,
and government entities in the
United States, particularly the Department of
Energy (DOE), disposed of at least 15 million cubic feet of low-level
radioactive waste management in 2005. This waste includes debris, rubble, soils,
paper, liquid, metals, and clothing that have been exposed to radioactivity or
contaminated with radioactive material, and sealed radiological sources that are
no longer useful for industrial or other applications. Other countries that have
nuclear reactor units and use radioactive materials in other ways manage the
residual LLRW in some ways that are different than in the United States.
Most countries surveyed use national radioactive waste plans to guide the
management of their radioactive wastes. Many representatives from LLRW
generators, disposal operators, regulators, and others told GAO that the
application of similar approaches to those used by other countries might improve
the management of U.S.
radioactive waste.
Veuillez trouver, dans le document ci-dessus, une sélection de rapports
récemment publiés par le gouvernement américain ou par des centres de recherche,
sur les thèmes du changement climatique, de l'énergie, des biofuels et des
océans.
Monique Vianey
Information Resource Center
American Embassy, Paris
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