TY - BOOK AU - Transportation Research Board AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - Katherine F. Turnbull TI - The Role of Freight Transportation in Economic Competitiveness DO - 10.17226/22135 PY - 2015 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/22135/the-role-of-freight-transportation-in-economic-competitiveness PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Transportation and Infrastructure AB - TRB's Conference Proceedings on the Web 16: The Role of Freight Transportation in Economic Competitiveness summarizes a December 2014 conference that explored the trends in freight transportation and economic competitiveness, as well as global business models and supply chains. Sessions addressed modal perspectives on supply chains, transportation system resiliency, transportation and energy sector developments, and global freight supply-chain issues.This meeting was the eighth in a series of Spotlight Conferences funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TI - Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Technology Options and the Waste Aspects of Advanced Nuclear Reactors SN - DO - 10.17226/26500 PY - 2023 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26500/merits-and-viability-of-different-nuclear-fuel-cycles-and-technology-options-and-the-waste-aspects-of-advanced-nuclear-reactors PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Energy and Energy Conservation KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The United States has deployed commercial nuclear power since the 1950s, and as of 2021, nuclear power accounts for approximately 20 percent of U.S. electricity generation. The current commercial nuclear fleet consists entirely of thermal-spectrum, light water reactors operating with low-enriched uranium dioxide fuel in a once-through fuel cycle. In recent years, the U.S. Congress, U.S. Department of Energy, and private sector have expressed considerable interest in developing and deploying advanced nuclear reactors to augment, and possibly replace, the U.S. operating fleet of reactors, nearly all of which will reach the end of their currently licensed operating lives by 2050. Much of this interest stems from the potential ability of advanced reactors and their associated fuel cycles - as claimed by their designers and developers - to provide a number of advantages, such as improvements in economic competitiveness, reductions in environmental impact via better natural resource utilization and/or lower waste generation, and enhancements in nuclear safety and proliferation resistance. At the request of Congress, this report explores merits and viability of different nuclear fuel cycles, including fuel cycles that may use reprocessing, for both existing and advanced reactor technologies; and waste management (including transportation, storage, and disposal options) for advanced reactors, and in particular, the potential impact of advanced reactors and their fuel cycles on waste generation and disposal. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - Pradeep K. Khosla A2 - Paul Beaton TI - An Assessment of ARPA-E: Summary DO - 10.17226/24811 PY - 2017 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24811/an-assessment-of-arpa-e-summary PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Policy for Science and Technology AB - In 2005, the National Research Council report Rising Above the Gathering Storm recommended a new way for the federal government to spur technological breakthroughs in the energy sector. It recommended the creation of a new agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, as an adaptation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) model—widely considered a successful experiment that has funded out-of-the-box, transformative research and engineering that made possible the Internet, GPS, and stealth aircraft. This new agency was envisioned as a means of tackling the nation’s energy challenges in a way that could translate basic research into technological breakthroughs while also addressing economic, environmental, and security issues. Congress authorized ARPA-E in the 2007 America COMPETES Act and requested an early assessment following 6 years of operation to examine the agency’s progress toward achieving its statutory mission and goals. This publication summarizes the results of that assessment. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - K. John Holmes TI - Modeling the Economics of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation: Summary of a Workshop SN - DO - 10.17226/13023 PY - 2011 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13023/modeling-the-economics-of-greenhouse-gas-mitigation-summary-of-a PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - Models are fundamental for estimating the possible costs and effectiveness of different policies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is a wide array of models to perform such analysis, differing in the level of technological detail, treatment of technological progress, spatial and sector details, and representation of the interaction of the energy sector to the overall economy and environment. These differences impact model results, including cost estimates. More fundamentally, these models differ as to how they represent fundamental processes that have a large impact on policy analysis--such as how different models represent technological learning and cost reductions that come through increasing production volumes, or how different models represent baseline conditions. Reliable estimates of the costs and potential impacts on the United States economy of various emissions reduction and other mitigation strategies are critical to the development of the federal climate change research and development portfolio. At the request of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Academies organized a workshop, summarized in this volume, to consider some of these types of modeling issues. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TI - Safeguarding the Bioeconomy SN - DO - 10.17226/25525 PY - 2020 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25525/safeguarding-the-bioeconomy PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Biology and Life Sciences AB - Research and innovation in the life sciences is driving rapid growth in agriculture, biomedical science, information science and computing, energy, and other sectors of the U.S. economy. This economic activity, conceptually referred to as the bioeconomy, presents many opportunities to create jobs, improve the quality of life, and continue to drive economic growth. While the United States has been a leader in advancements in the biological sciences, other countries are also actively investing in and expanding their capabilities in this area. Maintaining competitiveness in the bioeconomy is key to maintaining the economic health and security of the United States and other nations. Safeguarding the Bioeconomy evaluates preexisting and potential approaches for assessing the value of the bioeconomy and identifies intangible assets not sufficiently captured or that are missing from U.S. assessments. This study considers strategies for safeguarding and sustaining the economic activity driven by research and innovation in the life sciences. It also presents ideas for horizon scanning mechanisms to identify new technologies, markets, and data sources that have the potential to drive future development of the bioeconomy. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - Pradeep K. Khosla A2 - Paul T. Beaton TI - An Assessment of ARPA-E SN - DO - 10.17226/24778 PY - 2017 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24778/an-assessment-of-arpa-e PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Policy for Science and Technology AB - In 2005, the National Research Council report Rising Above the Gathering Storm recommended a new way for the federal government to spur technological breakthroughs in the energy sector. It recommended the creation of a new agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, as an adaptation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) model—widely considered a successful experiment that has funded out-of-the-box, transformative research and engineering that made possible the Internet, GPS, and stealth aircraft. This new agency was envisioned as a means of tackling the nation's energy challenges in a way that could translate basic research into technological breakthroughs while also addressing economic, environmental, and security issues. Congress authorized ARPA-E in the 2007 America COMPETES Act and requested an early assessment following 6 years of operation to examine the agency's progress toward achieving its statutory mission and goals. This report documents the results of that assessment. It includes both an operational assessment of the agency's funding programs and a technical assessment of its awards, to the extent possible. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TI - The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Electric Power Technologies SN - DO - 10.17226/21712 PY - 2016 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/21712/the-power-of-change-innovation-for-development-and-deployment-of PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Energy and Energy Conservation KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - Electricity, supplied reliably and affordably, is foundational to the U.S. economy and is utterly indispensable to modern society. However, emissions resulting from many forms of electricity generation create environmental risks that could have significant negative economic, security, and human health consequences. Large-scale installation of cleaner power generation has been generally hampered because greener technologies are more expensive than the technologies that currently produce most of our power. Rather than trade affordability and reliability for low emissions, is there a way to balance all three? The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies considers how to speed up innovations that would dramatically improve the performance and lower the cost of currently available technologies while also developing new advanced cleaner energy technologies. According to this report, there is an opportunity for the United States to continue to lead in the pursuit of increasingly clean, more efficient electricity through innovation in advanced technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies makes the case that America's advantages—world-class universities and national laboratories, a vibrant private sector, and innovative states, cities, and regions that are free to experiment with a variety of public policy approaches—position the United States to create and lead a new clean energy revolution. This study focuses on five paths to accelerate the market adoption of increasing clean energy and efficiency technologies: (1) expanding the portfolio of cleaner energy technology options; (2) leveraging the advantages of energy efficiency; (3) facilitating the development of increasing clean technologies, including renewables, nuclear, and cleaner fossil; (4) improving the existing technologies, systems, and infrastructure; and (5) leveling the playing field for cleaner energy technologies. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies is a call for leadership to transform the United States energy sector in order to both mitigate the risks of greenhouse gas and other pollutants and to spur future economic growth. This study's focus on science, technology, and economic policy makes it a valuable resource to guide support that produces innovation to meet energy challenges now and for the future. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Energy and Transportation: Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century SN - DO - 10.17226/10814 PY - 2003 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10814/energy-and-transportation-challenges-for-the-chemical-sciences-in-the PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Transportation and Infrastructure KW - Math, Chemistry, and Physics AB - This book, also based on a workshop, assesses the current state of chemistry and chemical engineering at the interface with novel and existing forms of energy and transportation systems. The book also identifies challenges for the chemical sciences in helping to meet the increased demand for more energy, and opportunities for research in energy technologies and in the development of transportation vehicles. ER - TY - BOOK TI - Romania's Energy Sector: Findings and Recommendations of an American-Romanian Workshop, November 8-18, 1992 DO - 10.17226/20928 PY - 1993 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/20928/romanias-energy-sector-findings-and-recommendations-of-an-american-romanian PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - KW - Energy and Energy Conservation ER - TY - BOOK AU - Transportation Research Board TI - Policy Options for Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Transportation: Special Report 307 DO - 10.17226/13194 PY - 2011 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13194/policy-options-for-reducing-energy-use-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-us-transportation PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Transportation and Infrastructure AB - TRB Special Report 307: Policy Options for Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Transportation examines the potential for policies to yield major changes in transportation energy use and emissions trends by policy measures targeting cars and light trucks, medium and heavy trucks, and commercial airliners. These three modes are by far the largest users of energy by U.S. transportation because they account for the vast majority of passenger trips and freight. According to the committee that produced the report, it will take more than tougher fuel economy standards for U.S. transportation to significantly cut national petroleum use over the next half century. It will likely require a combination of measures that foster consumer and supplier interest in vehicle fuel economy, alternative fuels, and a more efficient transportation system. Major policy options examined in the report-fuel taxes, vehicle efficiency standards, fuel standards, infrastructure investments, and coordinated transportation and land use planning-have the potential to bring about large energy and emissions savings from these modes over time; however, each option presents particular challenges with respect to the scope and timing of its impacts. The report suggests that combining transportation policy options to increase the timeliness and expand the scale and scope of the response may be warranted. Saving energy in transportation can have important implications for the cost of securing the world's oil supplies, since transportation accounts for most of the petroleum consumed in the United States. It can also help with controlling the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which will require major reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from economic sectors that are heavy users of carbon-rich fossil fuels. Scientific analyses and models indicate a need to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and other GHGs by the middle of this century to reduce the risks of climate change. A response by the transportation sector to this energy and emissions challenge will be important because it produces between one-quarter and one-third of all of the CO2 emitted from the country's energy consumption. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey Letter Report DO - 10.17226/12922 PY - 2010 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/12922/commercial-buildings-energy-consumption-survey-letter-report PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Energy and Energy Conservation KW - Behavioral and Social Sciences KW - Surveys and Statistics AB - The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is a survey of commercial buildings in the United States, mandated by Congress to provide comprehensive information about energy use in commercial buildings. In addition to energy consumption and expenditure data, the survey collects information about building characteristics, such as energy source, physical structure, equipment used, and activities performed, which provides researchers with detailed information about commercial sector energy use and how it relates to building characteristics. The CBECS is the only national source of these data, and is used for energy forecasting, program development, and policy development. At the request of the Energy Information Administration, the National Research Council is conducting a comprehensive 30-month study of the CBECS and the corresponding study of Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). Because plans for the upcoming 2011 round of CBECS must be finalized in the near future, the panel was charged to comment as soon as possible on design and data collection options that would enable the upcoming round of this survey to better support U.S. Department of Energy program information needs, reduce respondent burden, and increase the quality and timeliness of the data. This letter responds to that request, and is limited in scope to discussing issues that the panel believes are realistic to consider in the timeframe leading up to the 2011 data collection. At the conclusion of the study, the panel will deliver its comprehensive report on the overall design and conduct of both CBECS and RECS. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council AU - National Academy of Engineering TI - Urbanization, Energy, and Air Pollution in China: The Challenges Ahead: Proceedings of a Symposium SN - DO - 10.17226/11192 PY - 2004 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11192/urbanization-energy-and-air-pollution-in-china-the-challenges-ahead PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Energy and Energy Conservation KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - In October 2003, a group of experts met in Beijing under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Engineering (NAE)/National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies to continue a dialogue and eventually chart a rational course of energy use in China. This collection of papers is intended to introduce the reader to the complicated problems of urban air pollution and energy choices in China. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Decreasing Energy Intensity in Manufacturing: Assessing the Strategies and Future Directions of the Industrial Technologies Program SN - DO - 10.17226/11243 PY - 2005 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11243/decreasing-energy-intensity-in-manufacturing-assessing-the-strategies-and-future PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Engineering and Technology KW - Energy and Energy Conservation KW - Industry and Labor AB - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has supported the Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) for more than a decade. This program supports R&D into energy efficiency technologies designed to decrease the energy intensity of the U.S. industrial sector. The focus in on seven energy-intensive industries—aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, mining, and steel—known as the Industries of the Future (IOF). DOE asked the NRC for a review of this program including an evaluation of the ITP strategic plan, an evaluation of the technical quality of individual subprogram plans, and the prospective value of the multi-year program plan. This report presents the results of that review. It contains an assessment of the ITP strategy, of how effective it is being implemented, and the likelihood of achieving program goals. It also provides conclusions about the quality of the subprograms and recommendations about how to strengthen the subprograms and the overall program. ER - TY - BOOK TI - Private Sector Participation in Federal Energy RD&D Planning DO - 10.17226/19953 PY - 1978 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/19953/private-sector-participation-in-federal-energy-rdd-planning PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - KW - Energy and Energy Conservation ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - Curt Suplee TI - What You Need to Know About Energy DO - 10.17226/12204 PY - 2008 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/12204/what-you-need-to-know-about-energy PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Energy and Energy Conservation KW - Engineering and Technology AB - American society, with a standard of living unprecedented in human history, can attribute a large measure of its success to increasingly sophisticated uses of energy. But that condition has come at a cost to irreplaceable resources, to the environment, and to our national independence. The goal of What You Need to Know About Energy is to present an accurate picture of America's current and projected energy needs and to describe options that are likely to play a significant role in our energy future. Written for a general audience, the booklet begins with a description of the status of energy in 21st-century America, including an account of our main sources of energy and a survey of the nation's energy demand versus the world's available supply. It then looks ahead to the quest for greater energy efficiency and to a portfolio of emerging technologies. ER - TY - BOOK TI - Technological Frontiers and Foreign Relations DO - 10.17226/19265 PY - 1985 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/19265/technological-frontiers-and-foreign-relations PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Policy for Science and Technology KW - ER - TY - BOOK TI - Energy Consumption Measurement: Data Needs for Public Policy DO - 10.17226/20318 PY - 1977 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/20318/energy-consumption-measurement-data-needs-for-public-policy PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - KW - Transportation and Infrastructure ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - William D. Nordhaus A2 - Stephen A. Merrill A2 - Paul T. Beaton TI - Effects of U.S. Tax Policy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions SN - DO - 10.17226/18299 PY - 2013 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18299/effects-of-us-tax-policy-on-greenhouse-gas-emissions PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Industry and Labor KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The U.S. Congress charged the National Academies with conducting a review of the Internal Revenue Code to identify the types of and specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate the magnitude of those effects. To address such a broad charge, the National Academies appointed a committee composed of experts in tax policy, energy and environmental modeling, economics, environmental law, climate science, and related areas. For scientific background to produce Effects of U.S. Tax Policy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the committee relied on the earlier findings and studies by the National Academies, the U.S. government, and other research organizations. The committee has relied on earlier reports and studies to set the boundaries of the economic, environmental, and regulatory assumptions for the present study. The major economic and environmental assumptions are those developed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its annual reports and modeling. Additionally, the committee has relied upon publicly available data provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which inventories greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from different sources in the United States. The tax system affects emissions primarily through changes in the prices of inputs and outputs or goods and services. Most of the tax provisions considered in this report relate directly to the production or consumption of different energy sources. However, there is a substantial set of tax expenditures called "broad-based" that favor certain categories of consumption—among them, employer-provided health care, owner-occupied housing, and purchase of new plants and equipment. Effects of U.S. Tax Policy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions examines both tax expenditures and excise taxes that could have a significant impact on GHG emissions. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Cooperation in the Energy Futures of China and the United States SN - DO - 10.17226/9736 PY - 2000 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9736/cooperation-in-the-energy-futures-of-china-and-the-united-states PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Energy and Energy Conservation AB - Today we recognize the importance of the pending transition in energy resource utilization in the coming century. Two major players in this transition will be two of the world's superpowers—China and the United States. Cooperation in the Energy Futures of China and the United States focuses on collaborative opportunities to provide affordable, clean energy for economic growth and social development, to minimize future energy concerns, environmental threats to our global society, and the health and economic impacts on energy production and use. ER - TY - BOOK TI - Energy Planning, Management and Efficiency in Local Context: Summary of an American-Bulgarian-Romanian Workshop DO - 10.17226/9241 PY - 1994 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9241/energy-planning-management-and-efficiency-in-local-context-summary-of PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - ER -