This paper presents detailed manufacturing energy-use and economic-activity data along with state-by-state policy summaries for the 10 member states of the Midwestern Governors Association. To help inform ongoing policy discussions across the region, this paper offers a snapshot of industrial energy use and current state approaches to reducing industrial energy intensity and energy costs for manufacturers.
Todd Gartner and C. Josh Donlan (Advanced Conservation Strategies)
February, 2012
This issue brief reports on the mechanics of and lessons learned from a conservation incentive program focused on the gopher tortoise. Its aim is to inform the successful design and implementation of other candidate programs emerging throughout the southern forests and greater United States.
This brief provides an overview of the Carbon Canopy, a novel partnership among companies, landowners, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that seeks to leverage markets for ecosystem services to increase the area of southern U.S. forests certified as sustainably managed. It is designed to inform companies, NGOs, and other organizations
interested in developing or participating in similar programs
that link forest certification with carbon offsets.
In this testimony, Senior Associate Sarah Forbes describes the state of China’s shale gas industry; governmental policies that will drive its future development in China; the implications of U.S.-China business-to-business partnerships and government-to-government cooperation; and how shale gas development in China and the United States changes the global dynamics of energy security.
The World Resources Institute hosts a roundtable discussion featuring former EPA administrators, elected officials, and business and health leaders on “The State of the Clean Air Act: Past, Present and Future” on January 23, 2012.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued today the first national standards to control mercury and other toxic air pollutants from coal-fired power plants. These standards follow from the bi-partisan 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments that mandated that EPA require control of toxic air pollutants including mercury.
The World Resources Institute will host its 9th Annual Stories to Watch event on January 10, 2012, looking ahead to the big environmental and sustainability stories for 2012.
New rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce mercury and other toxic air emissions will affect dozens of antiquated power plants currently operating without pollution controls. These
rules have stirred debate in some circles as to whether retrofitting or retiring outdated plants will cause shortfalls in electricity capacity. How will EPA mercury rules influence the electricity system? This fact sheet updates earlier assessments by taking a close look at recent studies on the reliability of the electricity grid to answer that question.
As the climate talks concluded today, Parties agreed to move forward with a “Durban Package” that includes a pathway forward on a legally-binding instrument for all countries, an agreement on a second commitment for the Kyoto Protocol, and a set of decisions to implement the Cancun Agreements, including the Green Climate Fund.