Government Accountability Office http://gao.gov/products/GAO-13-242 [Energy Guardian article by Edward Felker] The Obama administration should do more to make federal climate change information available to communities coping with higher tides, strong storms and other problems caused by warmer temperatures, government auditors say. The Government Accountability Office called on President Barack Obama to tap a single office … Continue reading »
Tagged with Infrastructure …
Dependence of Hydropower Energy Generation on Forests in the Amazon Basin at Local and Regional Scales
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Published online before print: May 13, 2013, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1215331110 / by Claudia M. Sticklera, Michael T. Coeb, Marcos H. Costac, Daniel C. Nepstada, David G. McGrathb, Livia C. P. Dias, Hermann O. Rodriguesf, and Britaldo S. Soares-Filhof http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/05/09/1215331110 Tropical rainforest regions have large hydropower generation potential that figures … Continue reading »
The 2013 U.S. Electric Utility Report
Black & Veatch http://bv.com/reports/2013-electric-utility-report [From an Energy Wire article by Saqib Rahim, sub. req'd] …According to engineering consultancy Black & Veatch, pipeline chokepoints have caused brief but extreme spikes in natural gas prices. Without new infrastructure, the firm said, consumers could face unsavory consequences: high bills and unreliable service. The ugliest scenario has yet to occur, … Continue reading »
Statement for the Record on the Status of the Highway Trust Fund
Congressional Budget Office http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44093 Statement for the Record by Sarah Puro, Analyst for Surface Transportation Programs, for the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives This statement provides information about CBO’s projections of future spending from the Highway Trust Fund and the agency’s estimates of the excise taxes that will be credited to the … Continue reading »
S. 601, Water Resources Development Act of 2013
Congressional Budget Office http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44095 The legislative language for this version of the bill was provided by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to CBO on April 12, 2013 S. 601 would authorize the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to construct water projects for mitigating storm damage, restoring ecosystems, and reducing erosion on inland … Continue reading »
Comparing the Impacts of Northeast Hurricanes on Energy Infrastructure
US Dept. of Energy http://1.usa.gov/YvJWTH Two major hurricanes, Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012, have impacted the Northeastern United States over the past 2 years, devastating coastal communities and causing widespread impacts to the region’s energy infrastructure, supply, and markets. Although Sandy was weaker than Irene at landfall, Sandy brought tropical storm conditions to … Continue reading »
Insurance as a Risk Management Instrument for Energy Infrastructure Security and Resilience
US DOE http://energy.gov/oe/articles/insurance-risk-management-instrument-energy-infrastructure-security-and-resilience The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability has released a report that examines the key risks confronting critical energy infrastructure and ways in which the insurance industry can help manage these risks. In most developed countries, insurance is one of the principal risk management instruments for aiding in recovery after a … Continue reading »
Canadian Oil Sands: Life-Cycle Assessments of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Congressional Research Service http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42537.pdf [PEN-e posting] This report discusses the basic methodology of life-cycle assessments and compares several of the publicly available studies of GHG emissions data for Canadian oil sands crudes against each other and against those of other global reference crudes. As congressional concern over the environmental impacts of Canadian oil sands production … Continue reading »
Water Infrastructure: Approaches and Issues for Financing Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure
Government Accountability Office http://gao.gov/products/GAO-13-451T …GAO reviewed three of the approaches proposed to pay for the nation’s drinking water and wastewater needs, each of which offers a different means to fund and finance projects. To understand these approaches as they apply to wastewater infrastructure, GAO surveyed stakeholders, including industry representatives and associations and federal, state, and … Continue reading »
Highway Trust Fund Accounts—February 2013 Baseline
Congressional Budget Office http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43884 [From companion online document, "Snapshot of the Highwat Trust Fund"] CBO projects that, starting in 2015, the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund will have insufficient revenues to meet its obligations, resulting in steadily accumulating shortfalls. That projection is based on two assumptions: that the taxes whose receipts are allocated … Continue reading »
