Transportation

Electric Vehicle Policy For the Midwest – A Scoping Document

jbailey — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:44:35 -0600

This December 2009 report was prepared for the RE-AMP network (120+ organizations in eight Midwestern states). The scoping report outlines and makes recommendations on a variety of policy issues related to expanding electric vehicles. The report illustrates the relationships between electric vehicles and other GHG reduction strategies such as fuel economy standards (CAFE), low carbon fuel standards (LCFS) and efforts to reduce vehicle miles traveled. Because of their energy storage capability, electrified vehicles will also play an increasingly important role in the expansion of renewable energy and the future elaboration of smart grid technologies.

Report: Rural Power: Community-Scaled Renewable Energy and Rural Economic Development

jbailey — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:55:44 -0500

The next 20 years could generate as much as $1 trillion in new renewable energy investment in rural America. This new Ford Foundation-sponsored study by John Farrell and David Morris provides a policy roadmap for states and the federal government that would encourage modest-sized renewable energy facilities and local ownership.

Electric Cars Are the Key to Energy Independence

jbailey — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:27:52 -0500

ILSR vice president, David Morris, responds to Al Gore's recent speech proposing a 10 year effort to move the United States to a 100% renewable energy electric system to address three major crises: the weak economy, catastrophic climate change and the dire national security problems inherent in our dependence on imported oil. Morris says that Gore got got two out of three right.

Driving Our Way to Energy Independence

jbailey — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:56:43 -0500

Updating a pathbreaking 2003 report, ILSR's March 2008 report, Driving Our Way to Energy Independence, describes how commercially available technologies today could transform our petroleum powered transportation system into one powered by electricity and biofuels. Provisions in the recently passed Energy Act could accelerate that transformation.

New Anti-Ethanol Studies Reach Wrong Conclusion on Greenhouse Gases

jbailey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:35:54 -0600

A new policy brief from Institute for Local Self Reliance criticizes the authors of two recent studies published in Science for advancing a conclusion not supported by their own studies. ILSR's paper notes that the vast majority of today's ethanol production comes from corn cultivated on land that has been in corn production for generations.

Carbon Caps With Universal Dividends: Equitable, Ethical & Politically Effective Climate Policy

jbailey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:17:15 -0600

A new policy brief from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance concludes that universal dividends are a critically important tool to create the political will and public acceptance for a carbon cap. Universal dividends have the potential to hold harmless a large segment of consumers while we move to a low-carbon economy. Moreover, the universal dividend honors the principle that the sky belongs to all of us equally.

Electric Avenue - PHEVs in Travel+Leisure Magazine

jbailey — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:05:25 -0500

A new kind of hybrid uses less gas and more electricity. All-electric cars are already here. What will this mean for the road trip of the future? ILSR's David Morris plugs in and gives us a little history lesson of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV).

Read the full story at Travel+LeisureMagazine

Report: Wind and Ethanol: Economies and Diseconomies of Scale

jbailey — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:02:57 -0500

Congress and most state legislatures have or are developing renewable energy policies with a single objective: get more renewables. Our new study, Wind and Ethanol: Economies and Diseconomies of Scale, finds that this single minded focus ignores the potential economic benefits from locally owned and more modestly scaled facilities. The focus should on better renewable energy projects not simply more.

Nebraska Ethanol Plant Taps Cow Power Next Door

jbailey — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:24:37 -0500

In Nebraska, cows are helping to produce ethanol. A 28,000-cow feedlot in Mead, Nebraska, is powering the neighboring Genesis Ethanol Plant, owned by E3 Biofuels LLC. The cows are providing 300,000 tons of manure per year, which is turned into methane via anaerobic digestion and accounts for 100% of the thermal energy needed to distill 25 million gallons of ethanol each year.

Column: Emissions Cap is Key in Addressing Climate Issue

jbailey — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:01:31 -0500

This column by David Morris and Peter Barnes argues for a three pronged strategy on climate protection. First, a comprehensive emission cap. Second, a carbon auction for suppliers of carbon fuels. And lastly, a universal and equal distribution of revenues from that sale. Three keys to an effective and equitable strategy to reduce global warming.