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Promoting Clean Energy in the American Power Sector

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  • Aldy, Joseph Edgar

Abstract

Despite bipartisan interest in advancing American energy policy, comprehensive energy and climate legislation fell short in the Senate last year after passing in the House of Representatives in 2009. The difficulty of coming to broad agreement highlights the need for a more targeted and incremental approach. One promising intermediate step would be a technology-neutral national clean energy standard that applies to the U.S. power sector. This paper proposes a standard that would lower carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 60 percent relative to 2005 levels over twenty years, streamline the fragmented regulatory system that is currently in place, generate fiscal benefits, and help fund energy innovation. Through a simple design and transparent implementation, the National Clean Energy Standard would provide certainty about the economic returns to clean energy that would facilitate investment in new energy projects and lower the emission intensity of the power sector. It would also serve as an ambitious bridge to economy-wide energy and climate policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Aldy, Joseph Edgar, 2011. "Promoting Clean Energy in the American Power Sector," Scholarly Articles 4901643, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:hrv:hksfac:4901643
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Fischer, Carolyn & Newell, Richard G., 2008. "Environmental and technology policies for climate mitigation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 142-162, March.
    2. Carolyn Fischer, 2010. "Renewable Portfolio Standards: When Do They Lower Energy Prices?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 101-120.
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    Cited by:

    1. Richard G. Newell & William A. Pizer & Daniel Raimi, 2013. "Carbon Markets 15 Years after Kyoto: Lessons Learned, New Challenges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 123-146, Winter.
    2. Geoffrey J. Blanford, James H. Merrick, and David Young, 2014. "A Clean Energy Standard Analysis with the US-REGEN Model," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I).
    3. Bryan K. Mignone & Thomas Alfstad & Aaron Bergman & Kenneth Dubin & Richard Duke & Paul Friley & Andrew Martinez & Matthew Mowers & Karen Palmer & Anthony Paul & Sharon Showalter & Daniel Steinberg & , 2012. "Cost-effectiveness and Economic Incidence of a Clean Energy Standard," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    4. Paul, Anthony & Palmer, Karen & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Modeling a clean energy standard for electricity: Policy design implications for emissions, supply, prices, and regions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 108-124.
    5. Malen, Joel & Marcus, Alfred A., 2017. "Promoting clean energy technology entrepreneurship: The role of external context," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 7-15.
    6. Mori-Clement, Yadira & Bednar-Friedl, Birgit, 2019. "Do Clean Development Mechanism Projects Generate Local Employment? Testing for Sectoral Effects across Brazilian Municipalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 47-60.
    7. Bielen, David A., 2018. "Do differentiated performance standards help coal? CO2 policy in the U.S. electricity sector," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 79-100.
    8. Paul, Anthony & Palmer, Karen & Woerman, Matt, 2014. "Analysis of the Bingaman clean energy standard proposal," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 113-129.
    9. Yadira Mori Clement & Birgit Bednar-Friedl, 2017. "Do Clean Development Mechanism projects generate local employment? Testing for sectoral effects across Brazilian municipalities," Graz Economics Papers 2017-05, University of Graz, Department of Economics.

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