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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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November 3, 2016
Retooling Regulation: a Closer Look at Integrating Energy and Environmental Policy
- Christopher James ,
- Ken Colburn
Part one of this series described why it is increasingly necessary to integrate energy and environmental planning and introduced one way to do so, the E-Merge approach. Improvements in public health science, detection technologies, and modeling over the last… View Summary +
September 15, 2016
Is It Time to Retool Regulation for Clean Air, Clean Energy?
- Ken Colburn ,
- Christopher James
Looking at the electric power industry today brings to mind the well-known April 1970 dispatch from Apollo 13: “Houston, we have a problem.” Actually, we have several. Prominent among them is the growing permeation of environmental issues into energy… View Summary +
August 9, 2016
The Duck is Learning to Fly in California and Hawaii
- Jim Lazar
I took a look at electricity data recently from California and Hawaii and I saw a duck that was learning to fly. Well, what I saw was that the so-called Duck Curve–the load shape some grid operators… View Summary +
July 7, 2016
Hot Showers and Cool Rides: Wind, Sun, and the Duck Curve
- Jim Lazar
As we look out over the power sector transformation that is unmistakably upon us, there are those who warn of the sacrifices, the risks, and the costs that could come with more and more intermittent electricity generation—wind… View Summary +
June 20, 2016
Lighting the Path to a Brighter Future
- John Shenot
With so many attention-grabbing headlines coming from sunny places like Nevada, Arizona, California, and Hawaii, one could easily be led to think that’s where all of the solar… 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 +
March 2, 2016
Long Live the Duck — and May He Fly Flat
- Jim Lazar
Utilities and grid operators from Germany to Hawaii have expressed concern about their ability to maintain reliable service as increasing amounts of variable renewable energy–primarily wind and solar–are added to a grid that has historically consisted overwhelmingly of… 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 +