Energy & Climate Roadmap Policy Insights

Michael Greenstone, Bogdan Mukhametkaliev, Jared Stolove University of Chicago John Larsen, Ben King, Hannah Kolus, Whitney Herndon Rhodium Group Building on previous modeling conducted by the Rhodium Group, we analyze the costs and benefits of tax provisions similar to those...

Regulators should consider coal’s full social costs when deciding whether to approve new mines and power plant emissions limits and address legacy environmental issues at sites while giving coal workers the opportunity to help clean up closed mines and plants.

Funding should be allocated to the energy efficiency programs that are most cost-effective based on independent and rigorous real-world evaluations.

Nuclear power could be important to decarbonizing the power sector, but first nuclear plant design, manufacturing and construction processes should be improved and efforts should be made to confront market failures and public trust.

A national Clean Electricity Standard that is flexible, technology neutral, and linked to carbon reduction policies in other sectors could go a long way in decarbonizing the power sector. Policymakers could maximize the benefit of this approach by making the...

To facilitate building a nationwide high voltage direct current grid, the federal government could simultaneously assert FERC’s primary role in transmission permitting and encourage the upgrading and re-use of existing rights of way.

As the Biden administration updates the social cost of carbon, their thorough review should include using the latest climate modeling, applying new climate damage estimates, employing lower discount rates, and incorporating global, rather than only domestic, damage estimates of additional...

Enacting a national, market-based framework to put a price on carbon can achieve ambitious climate change goals while minimizing the cost to the American economy. The most effective climate policy will be one that establishes a national carbon price that...

The effects of climate change will be different across the country, with some of the worst impacts falling on already-disadvantaged regions.

The Challenge If the United States or a subset of countries restrict emissions of carbon dioxide but other countries do not, energy-intensive industries may simply relocate offshore to countries with fewer restrictions on emissions. Relocated industries would continue to pollute,...