RFF Begins Initiative to Rank U.S. Energy Priorities

RFF BEGINS MULTI-YEAR INITIATIVE TO RANK U.S. ENERGY PRIORITIES

FOR RELEASE September, 2008

CONTACT: RFF Office of Communications, 202-328-5026

WASHINGTON – Building on a 50-year legacy in energy research, Resources for the Future is undertaking a multi-faceted initiative to assess future U.S. energy policy options and prospects.

The three-year project, Towards a New National Energy Policy: Scoring the Options, will be supported by a grant from a new organization, the National Energy Policy Institute (NEPI), an entity of the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation.

As currently planned, the project will rank a comprehensive set of energy and climate-related strategies, using a rigorous scoring mechanism to assess their cost-effectiveness and potential for success in improving America’s energy security and reducing the amount of total greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damages.

“Over the next decade, the nation’s decision makers must have reliable methods to judge the feasibility of a wide variety of energy policy options,” said RFF President Phil Sharp in announcing the project. “We believe RFF’s distinguished history in providing nonpartisan analysis in energy and climate policy equips us well to take on this essential work.”

The project, to be formally launched in the fall of 2008, will be managed by a team of project leaders, including RFF Senior Fellows Alan Krupnick, Margaret Walls, and Ian Parry. Other contributors, drawn from the RFF staff and outside experts, will help guide and evaluate the work, which will culminate with publication of a book in late 2009. Interim products will include White Papers and the results of individual research projects on particular strategies.

Anthony Knowles, former governor of Alaska and currently director of NEPI, says RFF was chosen for the project because of its longstanding contributions to energy policy formulation and its demonstrated ability to inject its research findings into the policy process.

“For many years, there has been a need to define consistent metrics in the energy debate to ensure clarity, focus, and understanding,” says Knowles. “RFF has shown that it has the analytical capability and policy know-how needed to deliver reliable results.”

Initially, the project team will produce a “scoping paper” to define the project’s vision.  Strategies being considered for study during the first stage of the project include:

• Economy-side economic incentive strategies targeted to carbon dioxide, such as a carbon tax and a cap and trade program. Many high quality modeling studies are available on this topic.
• Hybrid plug-in vehicle mandate or subsidy.
• Energy-efficient building standards.
• Reforms to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

“The scoping paper will include a discussion of the nature of climate change and energy security problems as well as the issue of metrics to measure expected performance on both these fronts,” says Krupnick. “The metrics will focus not only on greenhouse gas emission equivalents but also on costs, measures of energy security, environmental damages, and cost-effectiveness of various energy strategies.”

Resources for the Future is an independent nonprofit organization that conducts research – rooted primarily in economics and other social sciences – on environmental, energy and natural resource issues.