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This report details the findings and recommendations from a two-day workshop conducted by the Electricity Innovation Lab (e-Lab) and Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest (NAVFAC Southwest) in April 2013. The document examines the technical, economic, and regulatory challenges of implementing microgrids on U.S. Navy bases to improve energy security and integrate renewable energy.

This issue brief from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute examines the role of energy storage technologies in mitigating electricity industry challenges, integrating renewable energy, and improving grid reliability. It details various storage technologies—ranging from pumped hydro and compressed air to advanced batteries and flywheels—and analyzes the impact of U.S. federal policies, specifically FERC orders and Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives, in overcoming implementation barriers.

This policy brief from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) examines the role of energy storage technologies in mitigating electricity industry challenges, integrating renewable energy, and improving grid reliability. It provides a technical overview of various storage methods, analyzes the impact of U.S. federal policies and legislation, and highlights specific large-scale implementation projects across the United States.

This statement from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute argues that U.S. forests are increasingly transitioning from carbon sinks to carbon emitters due to climate change, droughts, and wildfires. It highlights a critical funding gap for hazardous fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration, suggesting that expanding markets for wood products and bioenergy could provide a sustainable financial model for forest management.

This briefing by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes President Obama's June 2013 climate change action plan. It examines the shift toward Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sector-regulation for electricity, the potential for alignment with subnational carbon pricing systems, and the implications for Canada's own regulatory approach and the Keystone XL Pipeline approval.

This fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute describes combined heat and power (CHP) technology, which integrates the production of heat and electric power into a single process to increase energy efficiency and reliability. It details the current state of CHP in the United States, its economic and environmental benefits, its role in disaster resilience, and the policy barriers and goals associated with its expansion.

This EESI fact sheet examines the role of landfills as a major source of anthropogenic methane in the United States and discusses strategies for mitigating these emissions. It highlights the EPA's regulatory role and the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), which helps convert landfill gas (LFG) into energy. The document provides economic comparisons between electricity-generation and direct-use LFG projects, noting that while existing capture systems make projects more profitable, new installations may require additional revenue streams like tax credits to be viable.

This fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) describes the technology, benefits, and potential of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems in the United States. It highlights how CHP increases energy efficiency, reduces emissions, and provides resilient power during grid failures, while identifying regulatory barriers and the specific advantages of biomass-fueled systems.

This fact sheet describes the environmental and health impacts of landfill methane in the United States, the regulatory frameworks governing its capture, and the economic viability of converting landfill gas (LFG) into energy.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative compares energy efficiency policies for buildings in China, Germany, and the United States. It analyzes four primary policy intervention points—new construction, building retrofit, equipment, and operations—and examines how different national building stocks, climatic conditions, and economic environments shape the priorities and effectiveness of these policies.

This research paper argues for the implementation of systematic approaches to understand the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus across various scales and sectors to achieve sustainable development goals. It presents a continuum of assessment tools, ranging from qualitative methods like index building to quantitative data-driven modelling, to support cooperative governance and resource management.

This briefing by the Stockholm Environment Institute explores extraction-based emissions accounting as a method to track greenhouse gas emissions associated with the supply of fossil fuels, contrasting it with traditional territorial and consumption-based frameworks to better assess economic risks and producer responsibility.

This briefing by Energy Innovation describes two distinct applications of demand-response (DR) programs: as a capacity resource to mitigate peak demand and as a balancing tool to integrate variable renewable energy. The document argues that DR is a cost-effective alternative to building new power generation or investing in expensive grid-scale battery storage.

This fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute describes the status and strategies for deploying plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the United States as of October 2012. It details federal, state, and local initiatives to build charging infrastructure, the role of 'model communities' in scaling adoption, and the integration of PEVs into government and commercial fleets to reduce petroleum dependence and greenhouse gas emissions.

This briefing by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) evaluates the impact of British Columbia's carbon tax and provides recommendations for its future. The document argues that the tax has successfully reduced emissions without hindering economic growth and suggests maintaining the current policy structure while addressing emerging challenges such as natural gas expansion and price misalignment with the United States.

This briefing by RMI analyzes the impact of low natural gas prices, driven by hydraulic fracturing, on the growth of renewable energy in the United States. While low wholesale gas prices create near-term financing challenges for utility-scale projects, the document argues that distributed solar PV and long-term cost declines in wind and solar will ensure continued renewable energy expansion.

The GSA Net Zero Renovation Challenge is an initiative by the General Services Administration (GSA), the Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings (OFHPGB), and the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) to achieve deep energy savings in 30-35 federal buildings using Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs). A workshop held in October 2011 by RMI and GSA identified structural, contractual, and technical barriers to achieving net zero energy, proposing a shift toward integrative design, streamlined procurement, and shared risk to move beyond conventional shallow retrofits.

This policy brief by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) examines the competitiveness challenges and carbon leakage risks facing the mining and metals industry due to diverse global carbon pricing policies. It discusses policy mechanisms to mitigate these risks, such as free allowances and border carbon adjustments, while emphasizing the industry's strategic role in providing materials necessary for low-carbon infrastructure.

This report by the Stockholm Environment Institute evaluates the current state of climate economics, arguing that economic modeling has lagged behind climate science. The authors advocate for a precautionary, standards-based approach to policy—such as maintaining a 2°C warming limit—rather than relying on traditional cost-benefit frameworks that often underestimate catastrophic risks and the importance of future generations.

A briefing from Friends of the Earth arguing that a congressional super committee can reduce the US deficit without harming the environment by eliminating subsidies for polluting industries and implementing a carbon tax.