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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In this report, produced with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Synapse Energy Economics, RAP and Community Action Partnership take an in-depth look at the disparate impacts electric and natural gas infrastructure have on economic, social, and health… View Summary +
Energy efficiency is key to reducing the size of the energy challenge, to accelerating the achievement of its solution, and to enhancing energy productivity, but old ideas that ignore the potential benefits of electrification and narrowly equate energy efficiency with… 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 +
Electrification of vehicles, appliances, and machines that are currently powered by fossil fuels offers environmental gains, new new business opportunities for power providers, may ease management of the electricity grid, and can save utilities and consumers money. No wonder the term… View Summary +
In a RAP webinar held on April 27th, 2017, we address the question of whether energy and environmental regulators can work together, in a more integrated and streamlined fashion, to achieve state energy and air quality goals. We think they can. Ken… View Summary +
As we head into 2017, the U.S. power sector is still in the midst of a steady, technology-driven transformation. In a RAP webinar held on January 17, 2017, RAP’s Ken Colburn, Dr. Carl Linvill, David Littell, and Richard Sedano held… View Summary +
In this webinar, Keith Dennis of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), along with Ken Colburn and Jim Lazar of RAP, explore environmentally beneficial electrification—the electrification of energy end uses, such as space heating, water heating, and transportation. With… View Summary +
Mounting research suggests that aggressive electrification of energy end uses—such as space heating, water heating, and transportation—is needed if the United States and the world are to achieve ambitious emissions reduction goals for carbon dioxide. This concept, the electrification of… View Summary +
States can meet their obligations to the new Clean Power Plan (CPP) with a variety of tools, from shifting generation to developing lower-carbon resources to making energy efficiency investments. One often-overlooked way to comply with the CPP, however, is electricity… View Summary +
As utilities and regulators consider their strategies for complying with greenhouse gas emissions limits under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) forthcoming Clean Power Plan (CPP), natural gas has an important role to play. But a “dash to gas” approach… View Summary +
Under the proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP), traditional air regulation based on solutions at individual generation plants will shift to a more flexible approach based on four building blocks, one of which is energy efficiency. Given most states’ experience with… View Summary +
Ensuring that an acceptable level of electric system reliability is maintained as the Clean Power Plan is implemented is in everyone’s interest. This short paper suggests ways states can think about their reliability targets and associated tolerance bands in assessing… View Summary +
This policy brief provides a side-by-side comparison of Sections 110 and 111(d) of the Clean Air Act and highlights the significant differences in requirements for state compliance plans under each section. The authors distinguish between U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)… View Summary +
Energy efficiency is a cost-effective, multi-pollutant strategy for addressing air quality, but is rarely utilized to meet air quality standards in the United States. This policy brief provides state air quality regulators and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with… View Summary +
Half of Americans live in areas violating national health-based air quality standards. Coal- and gas-fired power plants are important contributors to the problem. The Clean Air Act has historically addressed power plants through regulation of smokestack emissions, employing “stovepiped,” pollutant-by-pollutant… View Summary +