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Research NOW - Energy & Climate Policy
Timely, Relevant, Accessible
Campus Research in the Public Interest
http://umass.edu/research/now/
June 2008
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Dear Friend,
You are among a small group of thought leaders, networkers, educators, and innovators who have been selected to receive this issue of Research NOW. Each issue features a brief selection of related research news items that provide timely, relevant, and accessible information from the flagship Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts. In this issue we explore work at the leading edge of energy and climate policy studies.
Green Energy is THE topic today at home and at work, in the daily news, and in the chambers of government everyone is talking about the need to rapidly develop green energy solutions. Like you, we're concerned about skyrocketing energy costs and the potential impacts of global climate change. We recognize that what's needed now are farsighted policies that will put Massachusetts on track to alleviate the strain of these problems and capitalize on green energy opportunities.
UMass Amherst is home to a host of world-class researchers who are working across disciplines to address these issues in a real world context. Engaging in this dialogue with you is important to us. We'd love to hear from you about this and other topics of research in the public interest
Sincerely,
Paul T. Kostecki
Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Things Are Heating Up: An Inside Look at Energy & Climate Policy
- UMass Amherst researchers develop next generation of environmental trading programs in advance of the launch of RGGI, a first-in-the-nation cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions. More...
- A federal "Cap-and-Dividend" policy would curb carbon emissions while putting dollars back in the pocketbooks of all Americans, say UMass Amherst economists. More...
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Policies geared to counter global climate change get a boost from advanced decision-making tools developed by economic systems and operations researchers at UMass Amherst. More...
- Green Jobs! A unified approach to job creation and a clean energy economy could generate millions of jobs at every skill level, report UMass Amherst economists. More...
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UMass Amherst awarded EPA Grant
A team of UMass Amherst researchers are designing the next generation of environmental trading programs with support from a grant awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year. This is especially timely as 10 northeastern states belonging to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative launch the first cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. in 2009.
The project is part of a three-year, $1 million grant received from the U. S. EPA by Stranlund, James Murphy and John Spraggon of the UMass Amherst department of resource economics and researchers from Purdue and Chapman universities.
Stranlund will gain information from UMass students, who will soon be competing in an economic computer game of his creation. As the students watch their decisions turn into cash, Stranlund will gain information on how government enforcement and other design features can affect the success of new environmental trading programs for greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution.
"Similar to existing environmental trading programs that require pollution sources to purchase permits in order to emit pollutants, the students will need to purchase permits before producing a certain commodity," says Stranlund. "Like their real-world counterparts, they can also cheat, be subject to random audits and have to pay fines if they violate their permits."
• For more information contact John Stranlund stranlund@resecon.umass.edu 413-545-6328.
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SkyTrust - Cap and Dividend Policy to Curb Carbon Emissions
Revenue from carbon-emitter permit sales would be
distributed as cash dividends to every U.S. citizen. That's the idea underlying the "SkyTrust", a public finance strategy developed by UMass Amherst economics professor James Boyce and PhD candidate Matthew Riddle.
SkyTrust couples carbon fees with revenue recycling and public investment in green technology. This "cap and dividend" policy combines auctioning carbon permits, an effective means to curb U.S. carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, with rebates on a per capita basis. A cap-and-dividend policy approach can accelerate clean energy generation and use in
Massachusetts and across the nation, according to the UMass Amherst economists in their report on
the innovative policy, which was profiled this week in U.S. News and World Report.
Although the cap and dividend policy would raise gasoline and coal-fired electricity prices, "the majority of U.S. households would be net winners in purely monetary terms: that is, their real incomes, after paying higher fuel prices and receiving their dividends, would rise... [A] cap-and-dividend policy is therefore an attractive way to curb carbon emissions," say Boyce and Riddle.
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Making Wise Investments in Green Tech - Decision-making Tools for Thought Leaders
A whole range of new energy technologies will be deployed over the coming years to carry out the nation's climate change mitigation policies. However, just how these technologies will evolve, and how climate change will ultimately impact the planet, is far from certain.
Using techniques that account for the inherent vagaries involved in thinking about events that have not yet come to pass, UMass Amherst Professor Erin Baker is developing powerful decision-making tools, which will help policy makers navigate this uncertain terrain. Baker aims to give government policy makers the
tools to create the best possible technology portfolio for cutting
greenhouse emissions cost-effectively.
Making the findings of this research accessible to policy makers is key.
"We are looking at something called Interactive Simulation, a fairly
simple computer program that will have our uncertainty data built into
it and will visually represent the future impact of different
technology portfolios," Baker says. Using the simulation, policy makers can
determine the most cost-effective combination of technologies to invest
in, while considering how those investments will impact climate change 20 years from now.
"Our hope is that this interactivity will allow policy makers to make
better decisions about their investments in the best possible
technology portfolio," says Baker.
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| Steady Flow of Clean and "Green" Jobs Can Fuel the Economy
The transition to a clean energy economy can be a substantial driver of economic growth and job creation in Massachusetts. "Workers at every skill level will be in high demand and enjoy greater
job security in key industries needed to build that green economy in
America and to fight global warming," report economics professor Robert Pollin and Jeanette Wicks-Lim in a June 2008 policy paper released by the UMass Amherst Political Economy Research Institute (PERI).
"We envision a renewable energy/conservation program at least on the scale of the interstate highway system, the expansion of the public university system or the expansion of the military in the 1950s and 1960s. The program we envision will be structured to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil sources as rapidly as possible," said Pollin and PERI's Heidi Garrett-Peltier in a draft report entitled, A Unified Approach to Job Creation and a Clean Energy Economy.
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