Energy Policy Now - Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

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200 Years of Energy History in 30 Minutes (And What We Might Learn for the Future) Mar 19, 2019

Show notes

The current energy transition is fraught with economic and social implications, not to mention abundant political squabbles. An economist looks at the past 200 years of global energy history and finds that difficult transitions are nothing new.

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The world faces an urgent need to transform energy systems toward cleaner, renewable fuels. Yet as challenging as the current energy transformation is, it’s worth noting that we’ve been through such momentous changes before. Over 250 years ago in England, coal fueled the start of the industrial revolution, opening the way to new economic growth and technological development that spread to many parts of the world.

In this episode an economist explores the extent to which energy has come to underpin modern economies, and how energy resources of all types have become inseparable from our everyday lives.

Jesús Fernández-Villaverdeis a professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also author of an upcoming book on global economic history, with a major focus on the role of energy in economic development.

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Can Norway’s State Oil Company Be A Climate Champion? Mar 05, 2019

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Norway is pursuing a future rich in fossil energy and climate solutions. Can its oil company, Equinor, reconcile these priorities and continue to reliably finance the country’s expansive social welfare system? Equinor’s Clean Energy Chief weighs in.

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Much has been made of Norway’s efforts to address climate change. The country has set the goal of going carbon neutral by the middle of the century, and generates nearly all of its electricity from hydropower. Norway’s ambitious environmental policies have even transformed the country’s car market, where EVs now account for half of new car sales.

Yet the country remains economically dependent on its fossil fuel industry, which provides key revenue for the government and its generous social welfare programs.

Much of Norway’s fossil fuel wealth comes from a single company, state-controlled Equinor, which has produced oil and gas from North Sea wells for half a century, and is now diversifying beyond fossil fuels. Equinor opened the world’s first commercial floating offshore wind farm in 2017, and is developing a carbon capture and storage business.

Stephen Bull, Equinor’s Senior Vice President for Wind and Low Carbon Development, discusses Equinor’s efforts beyond fossil fuels and how the Norwegian government, which is environmentally progressive yet dependent on oil wealth, is driving the company. He also talks about the inherent conflict of interest when a fossil fuel company pursues non-fossil energy alternatives.

Stephen Bull, Senior Vice President for Wind and Low Carbon Development at Equinor, and Chairman of RenewableUK, a renewable energy trade association.

U.S. Offshore Wind Power https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/paper/us-offshore-wind-power

U.S. Offshore Wind Industry Arrives (Podcast) https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/us-offshore-wind-industry-arrives

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Getting to the Right Carbon Price Feb 19, 2019

Show notes

Bipartisan carbon pricing proposals have started to appear at the national level, which begs a question: what’s the right price for carbon? An advisor to California and RGGI carbon markets offers insights.
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Over the past two years the idea of putting a price on carbon has gathered new and often unexpected support from across the political spectrum. In 2017 a group of former Republican leaders offered up a proposal for a national carbon tax. This January, top economists including all of the living former Federal Reserve Chairs pledged their support for such a plan on the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal.
While Congress has remained polarized, carbon pricing proposals have recently emerged from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. And oil companies such as Exxon and Shell now publicly support a carbon price.
Guest Dallas Burtraw, an advisor to carbon cap and trade programs in California and the Eastern U.S., discusses one of the most challenging and controversial aspects facing any effort to price carbon: getting the carbon price right. When done correctly, carbon pricing can speed greenhouse emissions reductions and fuel economic growth. Yet carbon cap and trade markets, which have been operating for over a decade in Europe and the US, have at times struggled with pricing, highlight the challenges likely to face future carbon pricing efforts.
Dallas Burtraw is Chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee and a senior fellow with Resources for the Future. He is also a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
Related Content:
The Inevitable Policy Response Theory https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/10/03/inevitable-policy-response-theory
Climate Policy Won’t Work Without Considering Labor. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/17/climate-policy-wont-work-without-considering-labor
Lessons from a Decade of Cap & Trade https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/lessons-decade-cap-trade

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China's EV Juggernaut Feb 05, 2019

Show notes

China is aggressively expanding its electric vehicle industry, with the aim of becoming a leader in the global automotive market.
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China produces as many electric vehicles as the rest of the world combined, the result of aggressive government policies to boost EV demand and manufacturing.
The push to electrify is part of China’s broader effort to control air pollution in its cities, where car ownership has risen dramatically. In a concerted effort, the government has invested heavily in the development of EV technologies, established sales quotas, and offered incentives to make EVs affordable. Today, China has also become the world’s dominant maker of EV batteries, the most valuable component in any electric car, and its global automotive ambitions have grown.
John Paul MacDuffie of the Wharton School of Business takes a closer look at the ambitious environmental and industrial policies that have enabled the growth of China’s electric vehicle industry. He also discusses how China’s EV manufacturing scale, rooted in environmental policies, might upend traditional hierarchies in the global automotive industry.
John Paul MacDuffie is Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Director of the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation, a global automotive research consortium.
Related Content:
EVs Mean Growth for These Businesses
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/11/02/evs-mean-growth-these-businesses
The Case for Electrifying California’s Cars https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2019/01/23/case-electrifying-californias-cars

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Where does the Defense Department Really Stand on Climate? Jan 24, 2019

Show notes

Congress has played down climate change while demanding that the Pentagon tackle climate-related security risks. A former DoD environmental lawyer looks at military efforts to address climate, and political mine fields along the way.

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When one thinks of major security threats to the United States it’s pretty standard to conjure up images of hostile foreign armies or terrorist groups. Yet over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense has increasingly recognized climate change as a source of global political instability, with the potential to displace populations and give rise to armed conflict.

Climate change also challenges the military’s preparedness, as weather extremes, wildfires and flooding threaten military bases here and abroad. In January, the Defense Department released a report that found that two-thirds of the critical military installations it surveyed have suffered damage or operational disruptions linked to climate risks.

Yet, while the Pentagon has increasingly taken climate into account, in public it has been relatively quiet on the issue under a president and Congress that have largely opposed climate action.

Guest Mark Nevitt, a Penn Law lecturer and former U.S. Navy pilot and attorney who served as the Department of Defense regional environmental counsel in Norfolk, Virginia, discusses the risks that climate change poses to military installations, and the touchy intersection of climate politics and national security.

Related Content

Texas Sea Wall Shows Inadequate Disclosure on Climate Risk

https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/08/28/texas-sea-wall-shows-inadequate-disclosure-climate-risk

Beating the Authoritarian Playbook on Climate Change. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/08/15/beating-authoritarian-playbook-climate-change

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Welcome to the Anthropocene, Our New Biogeophysical Home Jan 08, 2019

Show notes

Mankind’s impact on Earth extends well beyond climate change to the broader biosphere, where the conditions that nurtured the development of modern humans are at risk of being lost in a new epoch known as the Anthropocene.

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Climate change makes headline news, but mankind's changes to planet Earth go well beyond rising temperatures. In this episode of Energy Policy Now prominent earth system scientist Will Steffen explores the dawn of a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene, where the systems of sea, land, and air will be unlike those experienced in human history.

The term Anthropocene, coined less than two decades ago, emphasizes the rising influence of humans on earth system processes, and our emerging role as the dominant force shaping Earth’s biologic and geologic systems. Steffen looks at the political and economic systems that have accelerated man’s impact on Earth since the middle of the 20th century, and at the role of technology and policy in slowing global change.

Will Steffen is emeritus professor at the Australian National University, former executive director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and a former member of the Australian government’s Climate Commission.

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Bold Climate Policy Is Coming. Investors, Take Note Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

A group of investors that manages $80 trillion in assets forecasts bold policy action on climate by the mid-2020s. What will such action mean for capital markets and economies?

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Principles for Responsible Investment, a London-based organization focused on socially responsible investment, has introduced a dramatic vision of a global response to climate change. PRI, which is supported by the United Nations and a consortium of global investors, believes that by the middle of the next decade national governments will be compelled to take major policy actions to address climate change.

The shift, which PRI calls the Inevitable Policy Response, will fundamentally reorient the global economy and drive investment away from industries that are dependent on fossil fuels, and toward less carbon intensive activities. The policy shift will come quickly, disrupting financial markets, and overriding the assumption that industry and economies will have time to gradually adapt to the pricing of climate risks.

Nathan Fabian, Chief Responsible Investment Officer with PRI, discusses the drivers, timing and economic impacts of an expected shift in climate policy.

Nathan Fabian is Chief Responsible Investment Officer with Principles for Responsible Investment in London, UK.

Related Content

The Inevitable Policy Response Theory https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/10/03/inevitable-policy-response-theory

Climate Policy Won’t Work Without Considering Labor https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/17/climate-policy-wont-work-without-considering-labor

Texas Sea Wall Shows Inadequate Disclosure on Climate Risk https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/08/28/texas-sea-wall-shows-inadequate-disclosure-climate-risk

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Vox’s David Roberts on Energy, Climate, and the Media Nov 27, 2018

Show notes

Vox writer David Roberts weighs in on the media’s role in shaping views on energy and the environment.

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Vox Media’s David Roberts is one of the nation’s top energy and environmental journalists, and now also a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

In this episode of Energy Policy Now, Roberts discusses the media’s coverage of the politicized issues of energy and climate and the challenge of being heard in a noisy and splintered media environment. He also talks about what it’s like to live and breathe energy from dawn to dusk (and beyond).

David Roberts is an energy and environmental writer with Vox, and a senior fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

Related Content

Climate Policy Won’t Work Without Considering Labor https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/17/climate-policy-wont-work-without-considering-labor

California: The Climate Leadership We Need https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/13/california-climate-leadership-we-need

The Climate Under Kavanaugh. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/11/climate-under-kavanaugh

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As India Eliminates Energy Poverty, Can It Also Fight Climate Change? Nov 13, 2018

Show notes

Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of railways and coal and past minister of renewable energy, discusses his country’s efforts to provide universal electricity access while limiting power sector pollution and climate impact.

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India is home to the world’s most ambitious electrification effort. By the spring of 2019, India’s government aims to connect the 30 million rural Indian homes that remain without power to the electric grid, as part of its broader effort to raise living standards and promote economic development. By 2030, India’s demand for electricity will triple as its cities and middle class grow.

New demand for electricity will be met by a mix of new renewable generation and coal-fired power. Emissions will rise as a result, highlighting the challenge India’s government faces in addressing air pollution and climate impacts at the same time it strives to eliminate energy poverty.

In this episode of Energy Policy Now, Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of railways, coal, and corporate affairs, discusses the potentially conflicting aims of providing universal electricity access and addressing environmental challenges. Until 2017, Goyal was minister of power, coal, new and renewable energy.

Piyush Goyal has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the Kleinman Center’s annual Carnot Prize in recognition of his contributions to energy policy. He will officially receive the prize in New Delhi.

Related Content

This Year’s Carnot Prize Honors Courage Amidst Complexity https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/07/30/years-carnot-prize-honors-courage-amidst-complexity

India’s Now or Never Climate Opportunity
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/indias-now-or-never-climate-opportunity

Negative Emissions Won’t Rescue Us From Climate Change https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/11/08/negative-emissions-wont-rescue-us-climate-change

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The Battle Over Methane Leaks Oct 30, 2018

Show notes

As Washington relaxes standards governing methane leaks, oil and gas industry leaders pledge to limit emissions. An economist and an environmental advocate examine the impact of methane leaks and the credibility of industry efforts to contain them.

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In September, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior pushed forward two separate regulations that will, in effect, hold oil and gas companies less accountable for methane gas emissions into the atmosphere. The new rules ease requirements that energy companies detect and repair methane leaks from wells and pipelines. The Interior rule, which has gone into effect, and the EPA rule, which is now open for 60-days of public comment, are part of a series of Trump administration efforts to undo methane regulations that the same agencies had written during the Obama administration.

The agencies acknowledge that the looser regulations will have a negative climate impact. Methane is a greenhouse gas that can be 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Yet the current administration maintains that the Obama-era rules would place undue economic burden on energy companies, while many energy companies say that they’re already acting to reduce emissions, and the stricter rules are duplicative.

Guests Catherine Hausman, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and Ben Ratner of the Environmental Defense Fund, discuss the economic and environmental costs of methane emissions, and how estimates of these costs tend to vary widely. Hausman and Ratner also discuss why methane emissions are so hard to detect, explore initiatives to both speed and lower the cost of containing leaks, and look at whether industry’s voluntary efforts to reduce emissions are enough.

Catherine Hausman is a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center, and an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, where she focuses on environmental and energy economics.

Ben Ratner is a Senior Director at the Environmental Defense Fund, based in Washington DC, where he focuses on collaborating with businesses on cleaner energy.

Related Content

The Hubbub About Gas Storage Levels https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/10/15/hubbub-about-gas-storage-levels

Fighting Climate Change and the Social Cost of Carbon

https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/fighting-climate-change-and-social-cost-carbon

How a Deepening Natural Gas Market Affects Europe https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/blog/2018/09/06/how-deepening-natural-gas-market-affects-europe

Carbon Capture’s Clean Coal Ambition

https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/energy-policy-now/carbon-captures-clean-coal-ambition

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