Common Resources

RFF on the Issues: Climate change opinions; Clean Power Plan impacts

Climate Change Opinions Members of Congress have offered a wide range of responses to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Synthesis Report, demonstrating the partisan divide over climate change. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) released a statement that the climate report would “cripple the global economy,” and Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY) emphasized that “irreversible […]

This Week in the RFF Library Blog

Each week, we review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted at the “indispensable” RFF Library Blog, curated by RFF Librarian Chris Clotworthy. Green Subsidies and the WTO This paper provides a detailed explanation how the law of the World Trade Organization regulates environmental subsidies with a focus on renewable energy subsidies. The paper begins by discussing […]

The Final Stage of IPCC AR5 – Last Week’s Outcome in Copenhagen

This post originally appeared on Robert Stavins’s blog, An Economic View of the Environment. Some of you may recall that following the Government Approval Sessions for the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of Working Group 3 (WG3) of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Berlin last spring, I […]

Should we all take a bit of lithium?!

You might have seen the September 13, 2014, New York Times op-ed titled “Should we all take a bit of lithium?” which was the Times‘ 7th most emailed story of the 30 days following its publication. It came to our attention about a week after it was published, when we found a Times-reading friend squeezing […]

RFF on the Issues: Flood insurance pricing; EU emissions deal

Flood Insurance Pricing Last week marked the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall on the US East Coast, which resulted in more than $50 billion worth of damage. Flood damage from Sandy was severe. For New York City, new flood insurance maps are being finalized in 2016. These new maps might cause “the number of […]

This Week in the RFF Library Blog

Each week, we review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted at the “indispensable” RFF Library Blog, curated by RFF Librarian Chris Clotworthy. Remote Sensing of Fugitive Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Production in North American Tight Geologic Formations [Energy Guardian] Some ten percent of natural gas produced in drilling fields like those in the Bakken […]

RFF on the Issues: State energy efficiency; Ending the oil export ban

State Energy Efficiency The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has released its 2014 scorecard evaluating and ranking state energy efficiency, concluding that states saved a total of 24 million megawatt hours of power in the past year. The scorecard noted that states are “truly at the forefront of energy efficiency policy in the US,” […]

This Week in the RFF Library Blog

Each week, we review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted at the “indispensable” RFF Library Blog, curated by RFF Librarian Chris Clotworthy. Ozone Air Quality Standards: EPA’s 2015 Revision [Energy Guardian] The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has quietly given some advice to lawmakers: Don’t believe the most dire warnings about the costs of the Obama administration’s […]

RFF on the Issues: Natural gas emissions; Renewable energy in EPA’s Clean Power Plan

Natural Gas Emissions A new study published online this week in Nature finds that more abundant supplies of lower-cost natural gas in the future would not only displace higher-emitting coal but would also displace lower-emitting renewable and nuclear technologies. It concluded that without additional policies “emissions of heat-trapping gases … would not decline worldwide and […]

This Week in the RFF Library Blog

Each week, we review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted at the “indispensable” RFF Library Blog, curated by RFF Librarian Chris Clotworthy. Power Plants Are Not Built on Spec: 2014 Update [Fierce Energy] Just 2.4 percent, at the most, of generation capacity constructed in 2013 was developed solely for sale into organized electricity markets, according to […]