Knowledge Center
We believe that sharing our expertise and collaborations in clean energy policy is how real, effective change happens.
From reports and policy briefs, to webinars and podcasts—RAP advisors have built an extensive collection of resources providing in-depth analysis and practical solutions to today’s energy challenges.
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Electric vehicles (EVs) need to pay their fair share of road construction and maintenance costs. But by targeting EV owners with inequitable and inefficient fees, state legislatures continue to miss the opportunity to solve the challenge of responsibly funding highways. In… View Summary +
Energy planners and regulators have traditionally valued the health benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy at zero — because these benefits do not flow to energy users in proportion to usage and because decision-makers had no simple and feasible… View Summary +
In a follow-up discussion to an earlier webinar, co-authors Jim Lazar and Paul Chernick and manual editor Mark LeBel took a more detailed, technical look at how to update cost allocation methods to ensure that costs are shared efficiently and fairly. View Summary +
In a webinar presentation, Jim Lazar, Mark Lebel and Paul Chernick discussed and answered questions about their newly published manual, Electric Cost Allocation for a New Era, covering the basics of cost allocation, current best practices and cutting-edge reforms. View Summary +
Cost allocation is one of the major steps in the traditional regulatory process for setting utility rates. In this step, the regulators are primarily determining how to equitably divide a set amount of costs, typically referred to as the… View Summary +
In a webinar presentation, Emma Zinsmeister of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explained more about the EPA’s innovative new “benefits per kilowatt-hour” tool for quantifying the health benefits of energy efficiency and renewables, and RAP’s Jim Lazar and Nancy Seidman… View Summary +
In a webinar on July 16, Mark LeBel and Jim Lazar from RAP, along with Karen Glitman of the Center for Sustainable Energy, discussed and answered questions about the current state of transportation funding, the causes of highway construction and… View Summary +
In a webinar presentation moderated by David Farnsworth, Carl Linvill, David Littell, Jim Lazar, and Jessica Shipley discussed the importance of flexible resources to the power grid. They offered examples of flexibility from around the country and explored tools to optimize flexible… View Summary +
In a RAP webinar presentation, David Farnsworth, Jim Lazar, and Jessica Shipley discussed considerations for ensuring that electrification of space heating benefits consumers, the power grid, and the environment, as well as regulatory and policy tools for implementing the transition… View Summary +
RAP’s definition of beneficial electrification asserts that an electrified end use must satisfy at least one of the following conditions, without adversely affecting the other two: Saves consumers money over the long run; Enables better grid management; and Reduces… View Summary +
In a RAP webinar held on June 19, 2018, David Farnsworth, Jim Lazar, and Jessica Shipley outlined principles regulators can follow to ensure that electrification initiatives benefit customers, grid management, and the environment. View Summary +
For electrification to be considered beneficial, it must meet one or more of the following conditions without adversely affecting the other two: Saves consumers money over the long run; Enables better grid management; and Reduces negative environmental impacts. Beneficial… View Summary +
In a RAP webinar held on April 11, 2018, Dr. Carl Linvill and Jim Lazar unpack smart non-residential rate design and explain how it can produce benefits for customers in your state. Regulators can create price signals for utilities that reduce… View Summary +
Rapid technology change means cleaner, lower-cost, and more resilient options for meeting customers’ energy needs are or soon will be available. Customers may soon have cost-effective options to meet their own energy needs through transactive platforms and markets. How can… View Summary +
Electricity use by non-residential customers accounts for nearly two-thirds of California’s total consumption. Many of these customers are interested in adopting distributed energy resources, and many have access to sophisticated energy management and load control technologies. These customers could therefore… View Summary +