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RAP experts keep their finger on the pulse of the energy sector and provide timely analysis of topics impacting stakeholders TODAY.
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June 11, 2018
Fuel-Switching: We Just Did This in 1990, So Why Are We Doing It Again?
RAP senior advisor Jim Lazar tells a story about doing a cost and environmental analysis on behalf of the Association of Northwest Gas Utilities in 1990, in which he compared space and water heating run on natural-gas-generated electricity to… View Summary +

April 6, 2018
When Utility Gas Affiliates Play by Monopoly Rules, Consumers Are Likely to Lose
- David Littell
Can monopolies with market power send business to other regulated monopolies? Can one monopoly create a “need” for which ratepayers will be charged by another related monopoly? As it stands right now, the answer to both these questions is yes. View Summary +

January 9, 2017
Beneficial Electrification: Opportunity Knocks for Utilities
- Ken Colburn
It is increasingly apparent that power sector transformation isn’t happening in the future; it’s occurring now. Already, resources are cleaner and more distributed, previously docile customers are actively seeking opportunities to save, consume, and even produce energy in new ways,… View Summary +

May 10, 2016
Carbon Markets: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future
- David Littell
Neo-classical economics tells us that markets reduce costs and increase social welfare. It also teaches that pollution not properly accounted for is a classic economic externality. That is, if clean air and clear water are not properly valued, degrading… View Summary +

April 14, 2016
It’s Aready Happening: New EIA Numbers Show a Utility Sector in Transformation
- John Shenot
My colleague David Littell recently wrote about the inexorable shift of the US power sector toward cleaner sources of electric energy, noting that the cost of renewables has been dropping, energy efficiency continues to grow, and storage… View Summary +

March 30, 2016
Deja Vu All Over Again
Yogi Berra famously had a quote for every occasion. If asked to describe the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s February 9 stay of the U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), I’d bet he’d say, “… View Summary +
February 29, 2016
The Inexorable Shift of the US Power Sector
- David Littell
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s temporary stay on enforcement of the Clean Power Plan has grabbed headlines recently, it’s important that we read deeper, and consider the broader context, of which the CPP is only one part. In recent years,… View Summary +
February 2, 2016
The Next Quantum Leap in Electric Efficiency—Game On
Ten years ago, the most aggressive electric efficiency efforts in the country were achieving first-year electric savings of about 1.0 percent of annual sales. Today, at least five different states have—or plan to—double those levels of savings, achieving between 2.0… View Summary +
November 10, 2015
Bring Your Economy into the 21st Century: Tackling CO2 with Cap-and-Invest
As they consider how to comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), many states are reaching a growing consensus that mass-based programs with regional trading—“cap-and-trade”—could drive compliance costs down. A related mass-based approach—one with… View Summary +

October 30, 2015
Emissions Trading in RGGI: What Does it Mean for China?
China launched seven pilot emissions trading systems (ETS) in 2013, as testing grounds for a national ETS. With the Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change, China confirmed its plan to launch a national ETS in 2017, and… View Summary +