Environmental Issues: Energy

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All Documents in Energy Tagged clean energy

Our Forests Aren't Fuel
Overview

Forests are for wild animals, fresh air, clean water, and hiking with our kids. But now industry wants to burn our forests for biomass electricity, polluting the air we breathe and stealing from future generations.

State Renewable Portfolio Standards Create Jobs and Promote Clean Energy
Renewable Portfolio Standards attract new industries, create jobs, and keep state businesses competitive, while encouraging development of renewable power like wind, solar, and biomass.
Issue Paper

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) move states toward clean, renewable energy by requiring that a percentage of a state’s electricity sold or generated must come from renewable sources within a certain time period. These statutes have enjoyed strong bipartisan support because of their proven ability to attract new industries, create jobs, and keep state businesses competitive, while encouraging development of renewable power like wind, solar, and biomass.

It's Time to Build an Economy that is Stronger, Cleaner, Healthier, and Made to Last
Legislative Analysis

Clean energy and energy efficiency have provided a robust source for economic growth and innovation during difficult times and we should not reverse course. The impending budget sequester and expiring tax incentives will significantly reduce investment In technologies like wind and solar power, electric vehicles and weatherization. This will harm efforts to create new jobs, invent new technologies, and reduce energy costs while incentivizing utilities to pursue dirtier energy at the expense of health and the environment. Congress should close tax loopholes that are no longer needed, not cut programs that are already revitalizing the economy. Get document in pdf.

A Greener Biofuels Tax Credit
The Path to Better Biofuels
Report

Next-generation biofuels have the potential to deliver better environmental performance -- reduced lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and farming practices that result in cleaner water and healthier soils -- with less impact on food and feed prices.

Delivering On Renewable Energy Around The World
How Do Key Countries Stack Up?
Fact Sheet

At the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit -- Earth Summit 2012  -- countries, companies, cities, and individuals need to commit to increasing the amount of wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and wave power throughout the world, to 15 percent of total electricity by 2020 -- more than doubling what is predicted under current trends.

NRDC testimony before House Energy & Power Subcommittee on Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
Testimony

This testimony by John Walke, NRDC’s Clean Air Director, concerns EPA mercury and air toxics standards for power plants, cement plants and various industrial facilities. The testimony was/will be presented before the Energy & Power Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 15, 2011. Get document in pdf.

Clean Energy Innovation
A Clean Energy Deployment Administration Will Spur Domestic Clean Energy Production
Legislative Analysis

Well designed government support for clean energy innovation has the potential to increase U.S. energy independence and promote innovation and green jobs while reducing global warming pollution. Currently, financing provisions to support clean energy deployment are critically absent from the government's portfolio. The Clean Energy Financing Title of the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 (ACELA, S. 1462 in the last Congress) passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year provides a framework for a Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA) to assist proven technologies in moving beyond the "valley of death" between demonstration-scale and commercial-scale projects. Critical changes, however, must be made to this legislation to ensure that CEDA's supports home-grown energy technology innovations that are truly clean and are so new that they need government assistance, and that the program includes taxpayer protections. Get document in pdf.

Let the VEETC Expire: Moving Beyond Corn Ethanol Means Less Waste, Less Pollution and More Jobs
Fact Sheet

Transitioning to low-carbon fuels is crucial to breaking America's dependence on oil and curbing global warming. But while some biofuels reduce pollution, others pollute more than the oil they replace. Unfortunately, the biggest government incentive program for biofuels -- the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) -- fails to differentiate between biofuels, and has wasted $20 billion taxpayer dollars subsidizing a polluting corn ethanol industry. By subsidizing any type of ethanol, the VEETC comes at the expense of supporting clean energy technologies like wind, solar, and advanced biofuels -- made from sustainable crops like willow -- that create more green jobs and far less pollution. Congress is considering a 5-year extension of the VEETC that would cost taxpayers $31 billion. NRDC urges Congress to let the VEETC expire and replace it with a smarter, cheaper, and greener biofuels tax credit that rewards real environmental performance. Get document in pdf.

A Clean Energy Economy for Indiana
Analysis of the Rural Economic Development Potential of Renewable Resources
Report

Indiana's advanced network of rail lines, interstate highways, and waterways has made it "the Crossroads of America." But the global economic downturn has hit Indiana hard, causing the loss of almost 200,000 jobs since the beginning of 2008. Facing an unprecedented set of economic challenges, Indiana is poised for healthy growth if it can take advantage of the enormous potential for development of its renewable resources.

Rebuilding for a Clean Energy Economy
Congress and the New Administration Can Create Jobs Through Renewable Energy
Fact Sheet

There has been a lot of bad news about the economy in recent months. But now some good news: America can generate millions of high-paying jobs and create a cleaner environment with one win-win solution—renewable energy. Ramping up renewable energy will bring new jobs to U.S. workers and address the increasingly urgent need for action on global warming. Congress and the new administration should move quickly to pass strong climate legislation that will set a science-based declining cap on global warming pollution and create a new market for clean energy that will put people to work. Get document in pdf.

Developing the Technology of the Future
Federal Climate Legislation Can Maximize Low-Carbon Technology Innovation
Fact Sheet

America needs strong federal action to contain the threat of global warming. But a series of barriers stand in the way of the technology innovation needed to develop a clean energy economy at the lowest possible long-term cost to society. Strategically increasing research, development, and demonstration (known as RD&D) funding for low-carbon technologies can help to overcome these barriers and jumpstart innovation. Get document in pdf.

China Clean Energy Project
Overview

Since 1996, NRDC has promoted efforts to develop a sustainable energy system in China, featuring cleaner, more efficient energy production and use. Learn more about our work.

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