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Incisive commentary from RAP experts
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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August 18, 2020
Extended ETS outperforms carbon border adjustment in the power sector
- András Mezősi ,
- Zsuzsanna Pató ,
- László Szabó
The European Commission’s proposal to introduce a carbon border adjustment mechanism would not work as well as extending the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to reduce global emissions and further integrate energy exporting countries into the European power market. Carbon leakage… View Summary +
July 16, 2020
Getting off gas: Future risks for energy poor households
If you are in pain, you go to a doctor who prescribes a painkiller. This cheap, proven and readily available treatment relieves your pain and temporarily solves your problem. However, if you continue to take the pills, you risk the… View Summary +
July 13, 2020
Striking the Balance in Energy Efficiency Regulation Between Utility Incentives and Customer Costs
- Janine Migden-Ostrander ,
- Martin Kushler
As Americans continue to face rising affordability challenges and struggle to pay their utility bills, consumer advocates are understandably concerned about keeping bills as low as possible. Energy efficiency is the lowest-cost resource and provides customers with the opportunity to… View Summary +
July 7, 2020
In a Time of Transition, Regulators Can Drive Cutting-Edge Cost Allocation Reform
- Jim Lazar ,
- Mark LeBel
The need for change in how we measure the cost of providing electric service by customer class is obvious to any attentive observer of the dramatic changes now underway in the electric utility industry. Electric Cost Allocation for a… View Summary +
July 1, 2020
Agricultural demand-side management needs multi-sectoral interventions
- Mahesh Patankar ,
- Frederick Weston ,
- Robert Lieberman
Cheap agricultural electricity has bedevilled the Indian power sector for decades, but enhanced agricultural demand-side management won’t solve the problem alone Virtually everyone with a working knowledge of the Indian power sector will agree that one of the sector’s biggest… View Summary +
June 29, 2020
Pushing water uphill: Putting power behind the renovation wave
For some time now I have been struck by the irony of the European Commission’s chosen name for its building renovation policy package, the “renovation wave,” given that increasing the rate of renovation has been like pushing water uphill. Currently,… View Summary +
June 19, 2020
Connecting Cities to the PUC Process
As municipal policymakers take increasingly active roles in moving their cities through the energy transition, they need to know their way around their states’ utility regulatory landscape. RAP and our partners at the Building Electrification Initiative (BEI) tackled this… View Summary +
June 18, 2020
Extra Credit: Maximizing the Benefits of Solar in Schools
- Dara Torre ,
- Janine Migden-Ostrander
While across the country America’s schools have been shuttered this spring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sun continues to shine. More than 1,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity from nearly 5,500 K-12 school buildings continues to generate… View Summary +
May 28, 2020
Power Sector Transformation and Economic Recovery in China
The good news is that coal is struggling around much of the world because the business case for coal-fired power is diminishing year by year. In competitive procurements around the globe, portfolios of clean energy — wind and solar especially… View Summary +
May 19, 2020
Transition to just
The global experience with the coronavirus crisis is shining light on the precariousness of everyday life for low-income and vulnerable households. As we are forced to stay at home, higher household energy bills put further pressure on already stretched household… View Summary +