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Stories for September 2021 |
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Gift to Power Duke Efforts to Expand Energy Access |
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A new gift will redouble Duke University’s efforts on global energy access challenges. The Energy Access Project at Duke (EAP) has received $3 million from M.A. Rogers to expand its work developing sustainable energy policy and market solutions in emerging economies.
EAP was established in 2017 through an earlier gift from Rogers and her late husband Jim, the former CEO and chairman of the board of Duke Energy. The program will adopt a new name in Jim's memory: the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke.
“Jim believed that solving global energy poverty is essential to building a more equitable and sustainable world,” said M.A. Rogers. “He brought to Duke his philosophy of building bridges and gathering talented people together to solve this tremendous challenge. And now seeds that he planted years ago have become a model for how universities can use the power of partnership to mobilize the ideas and resources needed to solve big challenges. Jim would smile knowing that this Project now bears his name.”
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Southeast Electric Transportation Regional Initiative Forms to Accelerate EV Market Expansion |
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A broad coalition of organizations from the business, education, government, and non-profit sectors has launched the Southeast Electric Transportation Regional Initiative (SETRI) to help realize the benefits of electric transportation by fostering greater coordination and collaboration among key stakeholders. SETRI aims to address regional market challenges such as electric vehicle (EV) charging and infrastructure gaps, accessibility, EV model availability and cost, policy guidance, and consumer awareness while unlocking untapped opportunities for economic development, jobs growth, enhanced energy security, and reduced environmental impacts opportunities.
Georgia Tech’s Energy Policy and Innovation Center and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute have been co-facilitating discussions with stakeholders since January 2020 that led to the formation of the initiative. |
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Webinar to Explore Water Affordability Challenges in the U.S. |
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Twenty years ago, the water industry realized that water utilities in the United States were entering an era of replacing aging infrastructure, and utilities needed to increase rates to charge the full cost of water services. Today, there is a growing affordability gap as the costs of water services have grown faster than income for many Americans. However, we don’t know the scale of affordability challenges for individual households or the financial capability of utilities.
The Nicholas Institute is hosting a webinar on Thursday, Oct. 7, from 2–3 p.m. EDT with Lauren Patterson, senior policy associate in the Water Policy Program, to discuss the affordability gap, why affordability is hard to measure, and what we are learning about the scale of affordability challenges. Patterson will also demonstrate the new Water Affordability Dashboard as one tool to explore affordability and financial capability within and across utilities. |
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NOAA RESTORE Science Program Awards $2.3 Million for Planning Actionable Science |
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The NOAA RESTORE Science Program has awarded funding to 20 project teams in the Gulf of Mexico to collaboratively scope and design research that will inform future decisions on managing natural resources in the region including marine mammals, shorebirds, barrier islands, and fisheries. Each project is designed to be an investment in the future of applied science, and ultimately, the sustainability of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.
Lydia Olander, director of the Nicholas Institute's Ecosystem Services Program, is the lead investigator on one of the awarded projects, which will scope and design socioeconomic research to inform restoration planning decisions made for pollution incidents in the Gulf of Mexico. The project will aid the Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program (DARRP) team at NOAA in understanding impacts on fish and their supporting habitats following oil spills or hazardous waste release, who targets the fish for recreational and subsistence purposes, and the value local fishers place on those fish.
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Southeast States Launch Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Planning and Deployment Tool |
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States and territories participating in the Southeast Regional Electric Vehicle Information Exchange (SE REVI) have launched a multi-state electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure map to enable coordination across the region on EV infrastructure investments. The interactive map utilizes various data, including locations of current and planned Level 2 and DC fast chargers, state and national parks, Federal Highway Administration-designated Alternative Fuel Corridors, hurricane evacuation routes, social equity data, and electric service provider territories.
Developed with input from each SE REVI participant, the map can be used to inform EV infrastructure investment decisions and to conduct education and outreach on EV infrastructure gaps and opportunities along priority corridors. Facilitation and analytical support for SE REVI is provided by the National Association of State Energy Officials and Duke University's Nicholas Institute.
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From January–July 2021, the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions (NI) and the Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) conducted a series of conversations with state leaders and have identified several specific policy priority areas relevant to infrastructure proposals. These policy areas and approaches have been repeatedly highlighted by state leaders contacted by NI and CNEE. This report highlights either emerging areas for states or cross-cutting needs that were consistently cited by states as important. This is not a list of state priorities for programmatic funding—such as how much funding should go to specific public investments—but areas that states seek to prioritize in partnership with the federal government.
These areas consisted of:
- Climate Resilient Infrastructure Investments
- Building a Federal Navigator Service
- Just Transitions for Coal Communities
- Climate Capitalization
- Environmental Justice Community Investment
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Parichehr Salimifard, Jonathan J. Buonocore, Kate Konschnik, Parham Azimi, Marissa VanRy, Jose Guillermo Cedeno Laurent, Diana Hernández, and Joseph G. Allen
Climate policies increasingly focus on the building sector to reduce its energy and emission footprint, since building energy use is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollution emissions. The most ambitious climate policy focusing on the building sector is New York City’s local law 97 (LL97). LL97 requires all mid-size and large buildings to reduce the GHG emissions associated with their energy use, 40% by 2030, and 80% by 2050. This study in the journal Energy uses several models and regulatory datasets to build novel NYC building energy use and GHG emission profiles based on LL97 and to investigate the impacts of LL97 on energy, climate, and health. The findings demonstrate the necessity of including health in energy and climate policy design.
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Paul De Noon, R. Andreas Kraemer, Leonardo Massai, Mickael K. Orbach, Nico Stelljes, Torsten Thiele, and John Virdin
Forests and the ocean are vital for climate, biological diversity, and human communities, but they are degraded and their ecosystem services are seriously impaired, mainly because financial, economic and governance structures are misconfigured. We propose that G20 help strengthen the REDD+ climate instrument for forests and extend it to Blue Carbon1 from coastal and marine ecosystems. Scaled up to cover the Earth’s two largest, most diverse and most productive ecosystems, these two approaches can deliver significant economic and climate benefits.
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Professional Opportunities |
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This position takes an active role in assisting with specialized research activities, in planning and operations, and in providing expertise to the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project (EAP). The role will focus especially in driving forward activities within EAP’s Modernizing Energy Access Finance and Powering Productivity and Healthy Communities work streams. |
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