Evaluating RPS Policy Design
Evaluating RPS Policy Design

Author: Lincoln L. Davies

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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As renewable energy support policies continue to evolve, assessing their effectiveness is increasingly important. Today, renewable portfolio standards (“RPS”) -- mandates that jurisdictions produce a percentage of their electricity from renewable energy -- are one of the two leading policy tools used to promote renewable energy development. While RPSs have received significant scholarly attention, few analyses have focused on RPS policy design. This Article fills this gap in the literature. Specifically, the Article makes three primary contributions: First, it builds a new conceptual model that can be used to evaluate RPS performance. Second, it employs that model to identify which RPS policy design traits are most likely to influence whether these laws succeed or fail. Finally, based on this analysis, the Article extracts lessons about current voids in RPS policy, RPS best practices, and, importantly, ways that RPS policy design can be innovated going forward. In this way, the Article is both conceptual and analytical. It draws on scholarship in regulatory performance, renewable energy law and policy, and innovation and technology diffusion, and it utilizes examples of RPS performance from across the globe -- particularly in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Article concludes that RPSs should focus more on reducing investor risk, expanding the types of resources they promote, addressing equity concerns, and removing external barriers to renewable energy development. While RPSs seek to advance a clean energy transition differently from how feed-in tariffs (“FITs”) promote renewables, policymakers may be able to enhance RPS performance by building into RPSs of the future tools used in FITs today.

Short Circuiting Policy
Short Circuiting Policy

Author: Leah Cardamore Stokes

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0190074256

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"Short Circuiting Policy examines clean energy policies to understand why US states are not on track to meet the climate crisis. After two decades of leadership, American states are slipping in their commitment to transitioning away from dirty fossil fuels towards cleaner energy sources, including wind and solar. I argue that organized combat between advocate and opponent interest groups is central to explaining why US states have stopped expanding and even started weakening their renewable energy policies. Fossil fuel companies and electric utilities played a key role in spreading climate denial. Now, they have turned to climate delay, working to block clean energy policies from passing or being implemented, and driving retrenchment. Clean energy advocates typically lack sufficient power to overcome electric utilities' opposition to climate policy. Short Circuiting Policy builds on policy feedback theory, showing the conditions under which retrenchment is more likely. Depending on their relative political influence, interest groups will work to drive retrenchment either directly by working with legislators, their staff and regulators; or, indirectly through the parties, the public and the courts. I also argue that policies likely effects are not easy to predict-an effect I term "the fog of enactment." But overtime, federated interest groups can learn to anticipate policies' consequences through networks that cross states-lines. Examining US energy policy over the past century, and Texas, Kansas, Arizona and Ohio's clean energy laws over the past two decades, I show how opponents have thwarted progress on climate policy"--

State Renewable Energy Electricity Policies
State Renewable Energy Electricity Policies

Author: Sanya Carley

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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Over the past decade, state governments have emerged as U.S. energy policy leaders. Across the country, states are adopting policy instruments aimed at carbon mitigation and renewable energy deployment. One of the most prevalent and innovative policy instruments is a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which seeks to increase the share of renewable energy electrification in the electricity market. This analysis evaluates the effectiveness of state energy programs with an empirical investigation of the linkage between state RPS policy implementation and the percentage of renewable energy electricity generation across states. We use a variant of a standard fixed effects model, referred to as a fixed effects vector decomposition, with state-level data from 1998 to 2006. Results indicate that RPS implementation is not a significant predictor of the percentage of renewable energy generation out of the total generation mix, yet for each additional year that a state has an RPS policy, they are found to increase the total amount of renewable energy generation. These findings reveal a potentially significant shortcoming of RPS policies. Political institutions, natural resource endowments, deregulation, gross state product per capita, electricity use per person, electricity price, and the presence of regional RPS policies are also found to be significantly related to renewable energy deployment.

Design and Performance of Policy Instruments to Promote the Development of Renewable Energy
Design and Performance of Policy Instruments to Promote the Development of Renewable Energy

Author: Gabriela Elizondo Azuela

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2012-07-12

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 082139603X

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In the early 1990s, developing countries started to introduce different economic incentives to promote the deployment of renewable energy. This paper summarizes the results of a recent review of the emerging experience with the design and implementation of price and quota based instruments to promote renewable energy in

Switching to Renewable Power
Switching to Renewable Power

Author: Volkmar Lauber

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-05-16

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1136555315

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Renewable energy has enjoyed relatively good - and sometimes extraordinary - growth in recent years, in particular photovoltaics and wind; but it will be difficult to sustain such rates of diffusion on a global basis. A more complete transition to renewable energy is required on a demanding timescale set by climate change and fossil fuel depletion. This book analyses strategies for promoting renewable energy within the context of a rapid energy transition, using case studies from different countries over the past 30 years. Having described the global context in detail, covering oil and gas depletion, climate change, third world development and the potential for renewable energy, the authors evaluate support mechanisms at national and international levels, offering readers a clear understanding of the regulatory framework and an opportunity to promote renewable energy effectively. This book offers energy policy makers, renewable energy professionals, energy consultants and students a platform for development and an invaluable research text. Contributing authors include: Jorg Schindler and Werner Zittel, Ludwig Bohlkow-Systemtechnik, Germany; Ian Rowlands, University of Waterloo, Canada; Giulio Volpi, WWF Europe; Kristian Hvitfelt Nielsen, Aarhus University, Denmark; Staffan Jacobsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; Peter Connor, University of Warwick, UK; Ole Langniss, Centre of Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany; Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, US; David Elliott, The Open University, UK; and Frede Hvelplund, Aalborg University, Denmark

Policies and Programs for Sustainable Energy Innovations
Policies and Programs for Sustainable Energy Innovations

Author: Tugrul U. Daim

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-04-21

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 3319160338

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This volume features research and case studies across a variety of industries to showcase technological innovations and policy initiatives designed to promote renewable energy and sustainable economic development. The first section focuses on policies for the adoption of renewable energy technologies, the second section covers the evaluation of energy efficiency programs and the final section provides evaluations of energy technology innovations. Environmental concerns, energy availability and political pressure have prompted governments to look for alternative energy resources that can minimize the undesirable effects for current energy systems. For example, shifting away from the conventional fuel resources and increasing the percentage of electricity generated from renewable resources, such as solar and wind power, is an opportunity to guarantee lower CO2 emissions and to create better economic opportunities for citizens in the long run. Including discussions of such of timely topics and issues as global warming, bio-fuels and nuclear energy, the editors and contributors to this book provide a wealth of insights and recommendations for sustainable energy innovations.

The RFF Reader in Environmental and Resource Policy
The RFF Reader in Environmental and Resource Policy

Author: Wallace Oates

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-09-30

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1136523685

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1. What the science says : how we use it and abuse it to make health and environmental policy / James Wilson and J. W. Anderson -- 2. Using science soundly : the Yucca Mountain standard / Robert W. Fri -- 3. Economics clarifies choices about managing risk / Myrick Freeman III and Paul R. Portney -- 4. Health-based environmental standards : balancing costs with benefits / Paul R. Portney and Winston Harrington -- 5. Discounting the future : economics and ethics / Timothy J. Brennan -- 6. Time and money : discounting's problematic allure / Paul R. Portney -- 7. How much will people pay for longevity? / Alan J. Krupnick -- 8. The Faustian bargain : risk, ethics, and nuclear energy / Allen V. Kneese -- 9. Market-based approaches to environmental policy : a 'refresher' course / Paul R. Portney -- 10. Trading cases : five examples of the use of markets in environmental and resource management / James Boyd. [et al.].

State-Level Renewable Portfolio Standards: Evaluating Their Effectiveness in Increasing Renewable Electricity Generation and Reducing Carbon Emissions
State-Level Renewable Portfolio Standards: Evaluating Their Effectiveness in Increasing Renewable Electricity Generation and Reducing Carbon Emissions

Author: Matthew J Denneny

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13:

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The renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is a key state-level policy instrument meant to encourage renewable energy development and address climate change by mandating increased electricity generation from low-carbon renewable sources. In analyzing the effectiveness of RPS policies, I hypothesize that these policies should increase renewable electricity generation and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation. Additionally, I hypothesize that more stringent RPS policies should allow for greater increases in renewable energy generation and larger declines in CO2 emissions. To test these hypotheses, I use pooled and fixed effects models to examine how RPS policies play a role in affecting renewable electricity generation and CO2 emissions. My results suggest that these policies increase electricity generation from renewable sources and that the stringency of these policies matters. However, the results are mixed in regard to their effectiveness in reducing CO2 emissions. These findings suggest that RPS policies as they are now may not be the best way to reduce CO2 emissions. Other policies that more directly target emissions may be necessary for states to see the emissions reductions they desire.