Energy and Water Development : FY2010 Appropriations

Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/document/R40669/ [From summary] The Energy and Water Development appropriations bill provides funding for civil works projects of the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Energy (DOE), and a number of independent agencies. Key budgetary issues for FY2010 involving these programs may include: • [...]

Nuclear Energy Policy

Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/document/RL33558/ [From summary]   Nuclear energy issues facing Congress include federal incentives for new commercial reactors, radioactive waste management policy, research and development priorities, power plant safety and regulation, nuclear weapons proliferation, and security against terrorist attacks…

Displacing Coal with Generation from Existing Natural Gas-Fired Power Plants

Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/document/R41027/ [From summary]  Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants is a focus of many proposals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. One option is to replace some coal power with natural gas generation, a relatively low carbon source of electricity, by increasing the power output from currently underutilized natural gas plants. This [...]

Coal Combustion Residuals Impoundment Reports

US EPA http://tinyurl.com/o9oanl [From press release] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released action plans developed by 22 electric utility facilities with coal ash impoundments, describing the measures the facilities are taking to make their impoundments safer. The action plans are a response to EPA’s assessment reports on the structural integrity of these impoundments that [...]

Climate Change and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) : Looking to 2020

Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/document/R41049/ [From summary]  …A “Phase 1″ trading period began January 1, 2005. A second, Phase 2, trading period began in 2008, covering the period of the Kyoto Protocol. A Phase 3 will begin in 2013 designed to reduce emissions by 21% from 2005 levels. Several positive results from the Phase 1 “learning by [...]

Agricultural Disaster Assistance

Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/document/RS21212/ [From summary]  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers several permanently authorized programs to help farmers recover financially from a natural disaster, including federal crop insurance, the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP), and emergency disaster loans. The federal crop insurance program is designed to protect crop producers from unavoidable risks associated [...]

Analysis of the Impact of Cape Wind on New England Energy Prices

Charles River Associates, Inc. http://tinyurl.com/y9cesn2 [E & E News article: subscription required]  The embattled offshore wind project planned for Massachusetts would push down the wholesale price of electricity in New England, saving $4.6 billion over the next 25 years, according to an analysis commissioned by the developer. The 130-turbine project called Cape Wind would generate 10 [...]

The Greenness of China: Household Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Urban Development

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) NBER Working Paper No. 15621 by Siqi Zheng, Rui Wang, Edward L. Glaeser and Matthew E. Kahn http://papers.nber.org/papers/w15621 [Abstract from Environmental Valuation and Cost Benefit News]  China urbanization is associated with both increases in per-capita income and greenhouse gas emissions. This paper uses micro data to rank 74 major [...]

The Impact of Hurricanes on Housing Prices: Evidence from US Coastal Cities

Munich Personal REPEC Archive MPRA via Research Papers in Economics (REPEC) http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/pramprapa/19353.htm by Anthony Murphy and Eric Strobl [Abstract from Environmental Valuation and Cost Benefit News] We investigate the effect of hurricane strikes on housing prices in US coastal cities. To this end, we construct a new index of hurricane destruction which varies over time [...]

Investment Managers Still Lagging in Response to Climate Change Risks and Opportunities

CERES Report http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=1175 [Abstract from Environmental Valuation and Cost Benefit News] “Although there is overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is underway and governments are imposing regulations to curb greenhouse gases, the vast majority of the world’s largest investment managers are not factoring climate-related trends into their short- and long-term investment decision-making, the result being [...]