Publications

How much are people willing to pay for self-driving cars? RFF’s Benjamin Leard discusses his work on consumer demand for autonomous vehicles and the potential implications for society of wider adoption of these new technologies.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative plans to implement an innovative new mechanism to help reduce price volatility in the market for emissions allowances.

Reconciling domestic and global estimates of the social cost of carbon will be a necessary challenge to construct effective climate policy, especially to the extent that other countries look to the United States for climate leadership.

China faces complex challenges to reduce air pollution while still promoting economic growth. No simple solution exists—but policy reforms to reduce excess capacity and get prices right can help in both the near and long terms.

Using data from the Pennsylvania shale gas boom, we find each additional truck on the road increases the number of accidents involving a truck—but, to an even larger extent, the number of car-on-car collisions.

Bike-share users may trade off their time to save money by going out of the way to avoid a price increase. We estimate how users value time in this context: commuters value time more than recreational users, but neither group responds to changes in price.

Proposed Mississippi River diversions—designed to increase wetland acreage on the Louisiana coast—must secure federal, state, and local government approvals and withstand possible legal challenges.

This research and analysis demonstrates that an emissions containment reserve (ECR) would provide several important benefits to help improve the functioning of the market for emissions allowances under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

Mexico, Canada, and the United States stand to benefit from increasing energy sector interconnectedness and coordination. What key environmental and fiscal policy areas related to oil and gas development provide opportunities for further harmonization?

We examine the effect of energy resource booms on preK–12 public schools by combining statistical analysis and in-person interviews with education professionals across six major oil- and gas-producing states.

New research suggests that inattentive consumers significantly undervalue vehicle fuel cost savings. Policies designed to encourage greater consumer attention would likely increase the fuel economy of vehicles on the road and reduce GHG emissions.

The American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act would levy a fee on US greenhouse gas emissions, largely on carbon dioxide. Modeling results illustrate the magnitude of the energy-related emissions reductions—projected to be 36 percent below 2005 levels in 2025.

We develop a framework to analyze the economic implications and emissions market outcomes of linking emissions trading systems with different features, including stringency, and apply it to the potential linking of the California and RGGI trading programs.

To control problems of congestion and air pollution, many cities in developing countries have started to restrict vehicle ownership. Beijing’s license plate lottery has unintentionally reduced the employment rate of women who do not win.

We compare several polices aimed at reducing methane emissions from the natural gas sector, which threaten to erode the advantages that gas holds over coal in terms of climate change.

An analysis of the impact of water scarcity on the electricity sector in the United States demonstrates how water scarcity shifts electricity production from hydropower to natural gas, resulting in increased carbon dioxide emissions.