High oil prices and growing worries about climate change have heightened interest in alternative and renewable energy sources, but these frequently cost more than fossil fuels. RAND has explored the feasibility of using renewable resources such as wind power and ethanol to reduce CO2 emissions and enhance energy security, and analyzed the likely effects of such technologies on consumer energy costs.
Research conducted within RAND Environment, Energy, and Economic Development focuses on environmental quality and regulation; energy resources and systems; water resources and systems; climate, natural hazards, and disasters; and innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development.
Report
If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation's armed forces. It makes more sense for the military to direct its efforts toward using energy more efficiently.
Journal Article
The authors perform a technical and economic assessment and estimate the economic costs and net GHG reductions from U.S renewable electricity mandates. GHG emissions reductions from such policies could be as much as 670 million metric tons per year. Depending on technological development, economic costs are $13-$45 billion per year. Lower costs depend on favorable technological progress.
Report
The U.S. Congress and federal agencies are considering legislative proposals to promote the development of unconventional fuels in the United States. RAND assessed the effectiveness of various federal financial incentive packages that could successfully promote early commercial experience with coal-to-liquids production.
Journal Article
Public perceptions of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other low-carbon electricity-generating technologies may affect the feasibility of their widespread deployment.
Content
CUBE 1.0 allows users to explore how estimates of net greenhouse gas emissions of biomass feedstocks change with varying assumptions about uncertainty in scientific data, future agricultural production changes, and development of the biomass resource base.
Journal Article
The authors explore the limits of current knowledge about grid electricity in LCA and carbon footprinting for the U.S. electrical grid, and show that differences in standards, protocols, and reporting organizations can lead to important differences in estimates of CO2, SO2, and NOx emissions factors.
Journal Article
This report is intended to complement extensive documentation contained in the model itself. CUBE 1.0, available for download on the NETL website, determines the life cycle GHG emissions of biomass feedstocks from planting the biomass to delivery to the bioenergy plant gate ("farm-to-gate").
Report
Aviation has few near-term options to petroleum-based fuels. Alternative fuels that may be available in the next decade may reduce aviation's impact on air quality and benefit nonaviation sectors.
Report
U.S. international energy-assistance programs, a potentially important tool for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security, are reviewed and compared with German programs; recommendations are made for further study.
News Release
A new study from the RAND Corporation examines how China's Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA) and Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) can best spur regional development and economic growth by focusing on emerging high-technology applications.
Report
Tianjin Binhai New Area and the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area commissioned a technology-foresight study to help them plan for economic growth. Seven applications stand out; the authors describe drivers, barriers, and plans for each.
News Release
The federal government can spark the creation of a commercially competitive coal-to-liquids industry by fostering early development of plants that would produce transportation fuels from coal.
Research Brief
Government actions to gain early experience in producing liquid fuels from coal offer major energy security benefits but also raise important economic governance, and environmental issues.
Research Brief
Alternative fuels derived from oil sands and from coal liquefaction can cost-effectively diversify fuel supplies, but neither type significantly reduces U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions enough to arrest long-term climate change.
Report
Government actions to gain early experience in producing liquid fuels from coal offer major energy security benefits but also raise important economic, governance, and environmental issues, as addressed in this book.
Report
Assesses the social welfare implications of a policy of requiring 25% of electricity and motor vehicle transportation fuels supplied to U.S. consumers to come from renewable energy sources, such as wind power and ethanol, by 2025.
News Release
Alternative sources of fossil fuels such as oil sands and coal-to-liquids have significant economic promise, but the environmental consequences must also be considered.
Report
RAND researchers assess potential future production levels and costs, greenhouse gases, and other environmental implications of fuels derived from oil sands and via coal liquefaction relative to conventional petroleum-based transportation fuels.
Past Event
Senior Economist and Director of RAND's Environment, Energy, and Economic Development Program Michael Toman will present Impacts on U.S. Energy Expenditures and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Increasing Renewable Energy Use on July 11, 2008.
News Release
Dramatic progress in renewable energy technology is needed if the United States desires to produce 25 percent of its electricity and motor vehicle fuel from renewable sources by 2025 without significantly increasing consumer costs.
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