Senator Sheldon Whitehouse discusses the prospects for bipartisan U.S. carbon border fee legislation, and the need to protect the Biden administration’s clean energy and climate achievements. --- (This episode was recorded on March 15, 2024, during Penn Energy Week) Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has a reputation as an advocate for strong climate policies in Congress. The Rhode Island Democrat gained national attention over a decade ago when he gave the first of more than 290 “Time to Wake Up” climate speeches to date on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Many of the speeches were delivered at times wh ..read more

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is finalizing rules that will determine which new clean hydrogen projects will receive the IRA’s generous 45V tax incentives, and whether those projects will deliver promised climate benefits. --- The Inflation Reduction Act provides a range of incentives for the development of clean energy resources in the United States. Highest profile among those incentives are hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits earmarked for new wind and solar power projects. Yet the IRA’s most aggressive incentives aren’t directed at renewables but at clean hydrogen, which i ..read more

Physical attacks on critical European energy infrastructure have risen since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, threatening energy security and the pace of the low-carbon transition. --- Sabotage of critical energy infrastructure has been on the rise, most prominently in Europe, where multiple attacks have targeted subsea electric transmission cables and natural gas pipelines, including Nordstream, since the start of the war in Ukraine.    These disruptions come at a time of upheaval in the energy system, as nations push forward with the construction of expansive carbon-free energy ..read more

Local opposition to clean energy projects slows the transition to a low carbon energy system. A legal expert explores how a national policy of “repurposed energy” could speed things up. --- Clean energy infrastructure projects often face opposition from communities where they would be built, a fact that stands in the way of efforts to rapidly lower energy-sector carbon emissions.  Alexandra Klass, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, explores how “repurposed energy”, which directs clean energy projects to abandoned fossil fuel sites and marginal agricultural lands ..read more

Each fall, the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy hosts a student blog competition, where students from any field of study can showcase their creativity, innovation, and passion for energy policy and sustainability. This year, we welcomed audio submissions, and we’re featuring our first-place audio blog here. This year’s winner is Benjamin Chen, a junior majoring in economics and minoring in computer science and environmental management. Ben’s winning audio blog is titled “Corporate Disclosure Law on Energy Policy”. Benjamin Chen is a junior majoring in economics at the University of Pennsylvan ..read more

A national network of CO2 and biomass transportation infrastructure, spanning pipelines to rail routes, will be needed to support the permanent removal of atmospheric CO2. Can the network be economically built? --- In December the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published Roads to Removal: Options for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the United States, which explores pathways to permanently remove carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere. The report provides a granular, county-by-county look at the potential for atmospheric carbon to be captured and stored across the U.S., and highlights the fact ..read more

Cary Coglianese, director of the Penn Program on Regulation, explores AI’s potential to help regulators keep pace with energy sector growth and climate-tech innovation. --- The ongoing transition to a cleaner energy system has positive implications for climate, energy security and equity. Yet the same transition poses myriad challenges for regulators, who are faced with an energy system that is more complex and distributed than ever, and where rapid innovation threatens to outpace their ability to tailor rules and effectively monitor compliance among a growing number of regulated entities. Car ..read more

Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard’s Electricity Law Initiative, discusses FERC’s pending reforms to the electric transmission development process in the U.S., and legal challenges they'll likely face. Description Nearly two years ago, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposed a set of regulatory reforms to speed a much-needed expansion of the nation’s network of long distance electric transmission lines. FERC’s final rules, which are likely to arrive this year, are expected to substantially update the framework under which transmission lines are planned and paid for, and pave the wa ..read more

New research raises doubt around the climate benefits of the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture and storage for fossil fuel powerplants. --- The Inflation Reduction Act earmarks billions of dollars of incentives for carbon capture and storage from coal and gas-fired powerplants. Ideally, the incentive will provide a path for fossil generators to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as the electric grid transitions to cleaner resources and to net zero. Yet recent research calls into question the climate impact of the IRA’s carbon capture tax credit, known as 45Q. The report, co-authored by a fo ..read more

Recent electric grid emergencies highlight the need for better communication, and coordination, between energy policymakers and grid operators. --- In early November the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, convened its annual technical conference on the reliability of the electric grid. In most years the conference attracts little attention beyond electricity industry insiders. But recently, and this year in particular, grid reliability has become a focus of national concern following a narrowly avoided, potentially widespread grid outage in the Eastern US last winter. A recent repo ..read more