Suchergebnisse

The entire world, especially the United States, is in the midst of an energy revolution. Since the oil embargo of 1973, individuals, corporations, and other organizations have found ways to economically reduce energy. In this book, James L. Sweeney examines energy policies and practices of the past forty years and their impact on three crucial systems: the economy, the environment, and national security. He shows how the energy-efficiency contributions to the country's overall energy situation have been more powerful than any other development. The author details the impact of new and improved energy-efficient technologies, the environmental and national security benefits of energy efficiency, ways to amplify energy efficiency, and more. Energy Efficiency: Building a Clean, Secure Economy reveals how through careful nurturing of private- and public-sector energy efficiency-along with public awareness, appropriate pricing, appropriate policies-and increased research and development, the trends of decreasing energy intensity and increasing energy efficiency can be accelerated.

Renewable energy plays an important role in meeting national targets for sustainable development, responding to climate change and environmental issues, and ensuring national energy security. Vietnam is considered to have potentials for developing renewable energy. In order to meet the demand for electricity for socio-economic development and to take advantage of natural resources, the Government of Vietnam has issued the Development Strategy of Renewable Energy and mechanisms,policies and incentives to support it. In the process of implementing the Strategy, regular assessment of internal and external environmental factors is essential to make appropriate adjustments. This is also the research target of this thesis. By analyzing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) for renewable energy development in Vietnam based on collected data, oppinions of experts, investors, renewable project owners, and a case study of PetroVietnam Power Corporation the thesis will make recommendations to achieve the set strategic objectives on renewable energy development in Vietnam.

By establishing a series of similarities to the U.S., this study demonstrates the potential for Taiwan's recent progress on sustainable energy policy to influence American policymakers. An assessment of Taiwan's current energy situation is contextualized within its economic development and political institutions. Taiwan's energy legislation has already leveraged significant financial investment to reshape an economy increasingly focused on clean energy technology. In the future, Taiwan will continue to pursue aggressive energy legislation and the U.S. may draw inspiration from Taiwan's sustainable energy reforms.

In the Kyrgyz Republic, access to reliable and affordable heating is critical given the cold and long winters in its mountainous regions. With central heating solutions such as district heating limited to the capital city Bishkek and other urban areas, over 80 percent of households resort to individual heating solutions. Every second household uses a traditional coal-fired stove, dung is frequently used as primary heating fuel in regions where animal husbandry is prevalent, and other solid fuels from wood to rubber are burnt to meet heating needs. Alternatives to traditional solid-fuel based stoves are limited in the Kyrgyz Republic, especially for low income households: electricity supply is increasingly constrained during winter months as insufficient new generating capacity is being added to keep up with the growing needs of the population and government decrees cap winter consumption on a regional level. In this context, high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) heating stoves offer significant benefits for household comfort, public health and air pollution which is an increasing problem in urban areas in the winter. The World Bank supported a comprehensive technical assistance (TA) program on HELE stoves over a three-year period 2016-19, examining demand features and supply characteristics of the Kyrgyz stoves market and piloting the use of HELE stoves in 76 low income households in four regions, with a focus on high altitude locations. The findings from the market studies and the lessons from the pilot trial are summarized in this report.

Throughout the past decade, municipal governments have steadily increased climate change adaptation measures, natural resource conservation programs, and clean energy initiatives. Through energy efficiency measures and renewable energy mandates, cities are poised to make significant impacts in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the mitigation of climate risks in the clean energy transition. This Article addresses municipal directives of advanced biofuels as an integral part of the clean energy transition. Existing laws and policies have critical design flaws. Specifically, the Renewable Fuel Standard ("RFS") has proven to be burdensome and complex, producing more unintended consequences than desired outcomes. Problems with the implementation of the RFS indicate that Congress overestimated the capacity of the biofuel industry to produce energy and the ability of the retail gasoline market to accommodate ethanol. Consumer resistance to ethanol use and market pressures create problems for biofuel use. This Article is the third in a series related to the law and policy of advanced biofuels. Previously, I examined international dimensions in Blood Biofuels (Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum) and federal efforts in Resiliency and Responsive Regulation for Advanced Biofuels (Virginia Environmental Law Journal).

Many people believe we must quickly wean ourselves from fossil fuels to save the planet from environmental catastrophe, wars and economic collapse. However, we have the technological capability to use fossil fuels without emitting climate-threatening greenhouse gases or other pollutants. The natural transition from conventional oil and gas to unconventional oil, unconventional gas and coal for producing electricity, hydrogen and cleaner-burning fuels will decrease energy dependence on politically unstable regions. In addition, our vast fossil fuel resources, perhaps especially coal, are likely to remain among the cheapest sources of clean energy for the next century and perhaps longer, which is critical for the economic and social development of the world's poorer countries. By buying time for increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable energy technologies and making nuclear power more attractive, fossil fuels will play a key role in humanity's quest for a sustainable energy system.

This report reviews the status of energy efficiency and renewable energy legislation introduced during the 110th Congress. Action has forced on the CLEAN Energy Act, which passed the House on January 18. The bill proposes to use revenue from certain oil and natural gas policy revisions to create a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve aimed at reducing foreign oil dependence and serving other purposes. The actual uses of the Reserve would be determined by ensuing legislation that would attempt to draw down its financial resources.

This report highlights a significant, but rarely discussed, economic angle to the Senate's deliberations on the American Power Act. Unlike the House-passed climate bill, which set aside one percent of revenues from emissions auctions for international clean technology investments, the American Power Act contains no such dedicated funding stream nor a program to guide these public investments. This lack of secure, long-term funding would limit the job-creating potential of the legislation by limiting the opportunities for American companies to export their energy technology to global markets.

Renewable energy policies have experienced significant evolution over the past few decades around the world. Regarding US experience in this area, both the federal and state governments were quite active in encouraging the transition to clean energy. Over the past decades, a lot of research has been done in this area. However, the existing literature deals mainly with the economic, political, and technical aspects of the transition to clean energy. At the same time, political dynamics received little attention. To understand the political dynamics of the energy transition (in this case, the United States), it is necessary to conduct detailed studies of federal and state policies. This article is devoted to the study of how decisions are made in the field of transition to clean energy, namely, the policy regarding one low-carbon technology - biofuel. For this technology, it was traced how the political agenda, actors, and institutions influenced the adoption and development of two programs: federal excise tax exemptions and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Global policies and instruments to tackle climate change look very different once translated into domestic programmes of action, reflecting varied institutional capacity, competing priorities, and diverse political cultures and political economies. In light of these variations, this article analyses how clean energy is governed in India, both through and beyond the Clean Development Mechanism. Governance processes are assessed across a number of scales, including various actors involved in mobilising finance and providing political and institutional support for clean energy. The nature of these relationships ultimately determines the nature of the relationship between policy goals such as energy security, alleviation of energy poverty and greenhouse gas emission reductions. Understanding these governance dimensions is therefore critical to assessing prospects for low carbon energy transitions in rapidly industrialising countries such as India.