RFF Energy and Climate

Global Climate Negotiations and Tropical Deforestation

Responding to Threats of Climate Change Mega-Catastrophes

Cost-Effectiveness of Electricity Energy Efficiency Programs

Emissions Targets and the Real Business Cycle: Intensity Targets versus Caps or Taxes

Oil Prices: Care to Speculate?

Commentary: James L. Smith asks whether the dramatic oil price shock experienced in 2008 can be explained by market fundamentals or if speculative forces were at work.

U.S. Leadership in Copenhagen

The Role of the States in a Federal Climate Program: Issues and Options

To Trade or Not to Trade: Firm-Level Analysis of Emissions Trading in Santiago, Chile

How Obama Can Conquer Copenhagen

At the UN negotiations in Copenhagen next month, President Obama can reclaim U.S. leadership on climate progress?even without new congressional legislation. Nigel Purvis and Andrew Stevenson provide a step-by-step outline for how the administration should proceed.

Climate Change in a Public Goods Game: Investment Decision in Mitigation versus Adaptation

Will Global Warming Discount Rates Short-Change Our Grandkids?

Commentary: Oxford's Cameron Hepburn considers the role of ethics in calculating discount rates for global warming damages to future generations and how to reconcile differing views in the debate.

Taxes, Permits, and the Adoption of Abatement Technology under Imperfect Compliance

Costs and Benefits for Consumers and Energy Price Effects Associated with the Allocation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Allowances

Climate Impacts on Energy Markets: An Outsider's Perspective

Planners in the public and private sectors need to be aware of not only the economic policy challenges facing energy markets, Senior Fellow Tim Brennan asserts, but also the climate policies with which they have to cope.

Testimony: Karen Palmer Testifies on Cap-and-Trade Policy

Weathervane: Appearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, RFF Senior Fellow Karen Palmer examines the effects of different approaches to compensating residential electricity consumers for the costs imposed by a climate policy.

U.S. Emissions Trading Markets for SO2 and NOx

Plugging Cap-and-Trade into California's Electricity Sector

Researchers Karen Palmer, Dallas Burtraw, and Anthony Paul address the options for regulating California?s electricity sector within the context of a statewide, and possibly regional, cap-and-trade program that also covers other sectors.

Global Climate Policy: Will Cities Lead the Way?

Regional Household Impacts of a Price on Carbon

In a new journal article, RFF Nonresident Fellow James Sanchirico and coauthors Billy Pizer and Michael Batz estimate the financial impacts of a carbon tax on U.S. households.

A Proposal for Chilling Copenhagen?s Hot Political Climate

Commentary: Jeffrey Frankel and Valentina Bosetti propose an international architecture for global climate policy that, unlike other successors to the Kyoto Protocol, takes into account a variety of likely political constraints.

Allowance Allocation in a CO2 Emissions Cap-and-Trade Program for the Electricity Sector in California

Event: Sen. Alexander on the Perils of Energy Sprawl

In remarks at an October 5th Policy Leadership Forum, Senator Lamar Alexander discussed the land use costs of renewable energy production and why he believes nuclear power should play a major role in America?s energy future. Video available.

Foreign Oil: The Same Price, But More Costly

Although domestic and foreign oil looks the same to the consumer, the instability of foreign suppliers carries hidden external costs.

How House and Senate Climate Bills Compare

Weathervane: RFF has compiled a side-by-side chart showing how key economic elements in House and Senate climate and energy legislation from the 111th Congress compare.

Finders Keepers?

Since the beginnings of the United States oil industry 150 years ago, production activity has been governed by the "law of capture," dictating that a driller owns the oil drilled from his/her property even if the oil has migrated from under neighboring land as a result of the drilling process. This "finders keepers" principle has been excoriated by foreign critics as "theft" and as a "law of the jungle" and has been blamed by American commentators?and the oil industry itself?as the root cause of the enormous waste of oil and gas resulting from U.S. production methods in the first half of the 20th century. Yet while in almost every other country the law of capture is today of only marginal significance, in the United States it continues to operate, and indeed to underpin the system of production regulation, with potentially wasteful results. In this meticulously researched and richly documented account, Terence Daintith adopts a historical and comparative perspective to show how legal rules, technical knowledge (or the lack thereof) and political events and ideas combined to shape attitudes and behavior in the business of oil production. He explains both the original adoption of the law of capture?not just in the United States but in other countries as well?and the paths of legal and political development that have led to its consolidation in the United States and its marginalization elsewhere. In contrasting these histories of the law of capture, the book raises the question of whether the U.S. can reduce waste in production without abandoning its deeply-rooted attachment to private property rights in oil and gas.

An Experimental Study of Auctions versus Grandfathering to Assign Pollution Permits

The Effect of Risk, Ambiguity, and Coordination on Farmers? Adaptation to Climate Change: A Framed Field Experiment

Some Limits of Wood Biomass for Cellulosic Biofuels

Harnessing New Electric Technologies to Curb CO2 Emissions

Analysis released at an RFF briefing by the Electric Power Research Institute?s Prism and MERGE projects suggests that diverse electricity technologies could meet the dual challenges of satisfying demand growth and constraining CO2 emissions, while also limiting increases in electricity costs. Video and audio available.

Designing Policies to Speed Technology Transfer to China

Clearing the barriers to the transfer of climate mitigation technologies means tackling difficult issues like intellectual property and tax incentives for implementation.

The Whole and the Sum of its Parts: Comments on David Victor?s ?Fragmented Carbon Markets and Reluctant Nations?

An Economic Assessment of Eliminating Oil and Gas Company Tax Preferences

Could Uncertain Forest Inventories Hinder Carbon Markets?

Incongruities in national forest measures from across the globe could present a stumbling block for the development of international forest policy, says Paul Waggoner.

A Meaningful Second Commitment Period for the Kyoto Protocol

An International Policy Architecture for the Post-Kyoto Era

The Challenges of Climate for Energy Markets

Gasoline Prices, Government Support, and the Demand for Hybrid Vehicles

Conflicting Goals: Energy Security versus GHG Reductions under the EISA Cellulosic Ethanol Mandate

Technology Transfer to China to Address Climate Change Mitigation

Burtraw Urges Consumer Relief in Climate Legislation

In Senate testimony, RFF Senior Fellow Dallas Burtraw said Congress can ease cost disparities for U.S. regions and the overall burden on middle-class households under a cap-and-trade program with relatively small changes to proposed legislation.

Climate Change Legislation: Allowance and Revenue Distribution

The Role of Technology Policies in Climate Mitigation

Finding Climate Mitigation Technologies That Work

Designing clean-energy technology policies to "decarbonize" major economies will require both a strong pricing signal as well as removal of policy barriers that inhibit R&D. In an RFF Issue Brief, Carolyn Fischer explores the tradeoffs.

EU-ETS and Nordic Electricity Prices: A CVAR Analysis

The Evolving SO2 Allowance Market: Title IV, CAIR, and Beyond

In a July 13 commentary, David Evans and Karen Palmer discuss the sulfur dioxide cap-and-trade system. While the program has been highly successful in generating substantial pollution-related health benefits at relatively low cost, the authors suggest ways to make the program still more efficient.

Ecosystems and Climate: Managing Change

The challenges facing terrestrial ecosystems in a warming climate are daunting, according to an RFF Report that explores policies and perspectives on making nature more resilient in the face of climate stress.

Current Policy and Legal Issues Affecting Recreational Use of Public Lands in the American West

Adaptation to Climate Change: Preserving Freshwater

Severe drought, flooding, and other extreme weather events are inevitable in a changing climate. A new RFF Report finds this will require the introduction of regional plans to ensure adequate supplies of freshwater for household use, irrigation, fisheries, and recreation.

Threats to Health from Climate Change?

A warming world could trigger new perils to public health, but an RFF study finds that adaptation policies could mitigate many of the potential consequences ? including risks of illness from heat waves, allergic and infectious disease, and rising air pollution.

An Experimental Analysis of Auctioning Emissions Allowances under a Loose Cap

Overseeing International Forest Conservation Programs

With Congress designing plans to manage international forest conservation, a key question arises?who should be in charge? In a new issue brief, RFF?s Nigel Purvis, Ray Kopp, and Andrew Stevenson offer their suggestion.

Climate Change and Infrastructure: A Volatile Mix?

An RFF Report looks at how U.S. roads, telecommunications, coasts, electrical systems, and water supplies may be affected by changes in climate and suggests ways to prepare through policy choices.

Managing Climate-Related International Forest Programs: A Proposal to Create the International Forest Conservation Corporation

Coastal and Marine Environments: Adapting to Climate Change

A new report assesses policy options for addressing climate change impacts on marine and coastal resources. The study is part of a series on U.S. climate adaptation policy being released by RFF.

Waste Not, Want Not: Transforming the Town Dump

Effective disposal of garbage ranks among the highest concerns of local officials, their constituents, and most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court. A new paper by Molly Macauley examines the interstate conflicts that have grown as waste disposal has become an increasingly nationwide, high-tech industry.

Goings On: Former Treasury Secretary Paulson Calls for Global Commitments that are Transparent, Meaningful

Reflections on Three Decades of Energy Policy

Climate Policy and Competition: U.S. Industry?s Regulatory Dilemma

Enormous Challenges, Enormous Rewards: 10 Precepts for U.S. Climate Policy

Engaging China on Climate Change

Adapting to Climate Change: Public Health

Terrestrial Ecosystem Adaptation

Climate Change and U.S. Agricultural Policy

More than most sectors, agriculture will feel the impacts of climate change. A new RFF report explores the role for public policy in helping U.S. farmers and ranchers as they develop practices to counter inevitable changes in temperature, rainfall, growing seasons, and soil conditions.

Adapting to Climate Change: The Public Policy Response

Agriculture and the Food System: Adaptation to Climate Change

An Adaptation Portfolio for the United States Coastal and Marine Environment

Emerging Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Resources: A Perspective on Transformed Watersheds

Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology

Biofuel from Wood: Caveats to Consider

Efforts to supplement gasoline with cellulosic ethanol are analyzed by Roger Sedjo and Brent Sohngen, who warn of economic dislocations that could result under existing targets set by Congress.

Alternative Pollution Control Policies in Developing Countries: Informal, Informational, and Voluntary

The Implications of Increased Use of Wood for Biofuel Production

Utilizing Geomapping Technologies

An RFF seminar showcases satellite images of Earth coupled with spatial data that is providing new insights into environmental trends ? from climate change to public health to ecosystem management.

Waxman-Markey in Comparison

In Weathervane: Key features of bill summarized in updated look at all market-based climate change bills in play (or drafted) during the 111th Congress

Engaging China on Climate Policy

RFF University Fellow Jonathan Wiener outlines why China?s national interest in climate policy is no longer as negative as has been supposed.

Successful International Response to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

In a June 1 commentary, James Hammitt describes what may be the first successful international response to a global environmental threat?depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer.

Alternative Pollution Control Policies in Developing Countries: Informal, Informational, and Voluntary

RFF Re-Launches Weathervane

Before the era of blogs, Weathervane fostered an informed digital discussion of climate policy. Armed with new technologies, Weathervane returns to bring context and clarity to current climate debates.

Teaching Opportunity Cost in an Emissions Permit Experiment

Energy Efficiency: Efficiency or Monopsony?

What We Know About the Role for Energy Efficiency Policy

A new RFF Discussion Paper summarizes what is known about the role for energy efficiency policy and identifies priorities for additional research.

Combining Rebates with Carbon Taxes: Optimal Strategies for Coping with Emissions Leakage and Tax Interactions

Governing Uncertainty: Environmental Regulation in the Age of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology promises to transform the materials of everyday life, leading to smaller and more powerful computers, more durable plastics and fabrics, cheap and effective water purification systems, more efficient solar panels and storage batteries, and medical devices capable of tracking down and killing cancer cells or treating neurological diseases. Policy analysts predict a radical change in the industrial sector, and at present, the U.S. government spends nearly $2 billion annually on nanotechnology research and development. Yet the nanotechnology revolution is not straightforward. Enthusiasm about nanotechnology?s future is tempered by recognition of the hurdles to its responsible development, including the capacity of government to support technological innovation and economic growth while also addressing potential environmental and public health impacts. This is the first volume to engage scholarly perspectives on environmental regulation in light of the challenges posed by emerging nanotechnologies. Contributors focus on the overarching lessons of decades of regulatory response, while posing a fundamental core question: How can government regulatory systems satisfy the desire for scientific innovation while also taking into account the direct and indirect effects of 21st emerging technologies, particularly in the face of scientific uncertainties? With perspectives from economics, history, philosophy, and public policy, this new resource illuminates the various challenges inherent in the development of nanotechnology and works towards a reorganization of government regulatory approaches.

Time for a CO2 Tax?

In a new RFF Issue Brief, Ian Parry discusses the case for implementing a carbon tax as a quick way to establish a market price on greenhouse gases?and thus help stabilize further climate change.

Producing Energy from Farm Waste

RFF researchers explored policy options to encourage production of electricity from agricultural waste. They point to market incentives to promote capture of methane from manure, thus enabling farms to generate power, reduce effluence, and provide climate and health benefits.

Safety Valve, Price Collars and Banking and Borrowing

Harrison Fell and Richard Morgenstern assess some of the leading options to manage costs in a cap-and-trade system and find potentially large efficiency gains.

Why We Need to Treat Nitrogen as a Systems Problem

In this week's commentary, Andrew Manale provides an insightful discussion of the sources of reactive nitrogen, its environmental impacts, and why a comprehensive portfolio of policy approaches is needed to contain nitrogen pollution.

Building Trans-Atlantic Consensus: The U.S.-EU Climate Policy Dialogue

With international climate negotiations just seven months away, negotiators across the globe are working to sort out the details of a new treaty. European Union and U.S. climate leaders marked Earth Day with a discussion of international climate relations.

Should Cap-and-Trade Systems be Supplemented with Renewable Portfolio Standards?

Christoph B?hringer and Knut Einar Rosendahl discuss how renewable portfolio standards affect the costs of emissions control programs, whether or not there is an economic justification for these policies, and, if implemented, how these policies should be designed.

Impact of Climate on Recreation

A new RFF Backgrounder assesses how changes in weather, water resources, and other climate change-related impacts will affect how Americans pursue their favorite outdoor recreational activities.

Oil Spills: The Deterrent Effects of Monitoring, Enforcement, and Public Information

In this week's commentary, Mark Cohen discusses the appropriate role of deterrence, monitoring, and targeted enforcement policies in reducing the frequency and size of oil discharges in a cost-effective way.

Pricing Carbon: Winners and Losers

Allocating the value of carbon permits or revenues from a CO2 auction is critical in determining who loses and who gains from climate policy changes. A new study examines the impacts across U.S. households and regions.

Stabilizing Atmospheric CO2 with Incomplete International Cooperation

How urgent is it that large emitters in the developing world be brought into an international agreement to control greenhouse gases? As discussed in this week?s policy commentary, the answer critically depends on the ultimate goals of climate policy.

Climate Change Abatement: Not "Stern" Enough?

In this week's commentary Dallas Burtraw and Thomas Sterner discuss whether moderate or aggressive action to reduce greenhouse gases is warranted on economic grounds.

Coping with Climate Change

Adapting to uncertain climate extremes will challenge traditional regulatory mechanisms. In this seminar, panelists presented a range of options to deal with concerns about ecosystems, forests, oceans, freshwater resources, wildlife, and existing infrastructure.

A Symmetric Safety Valve

RFF scholars find that a cap-and-trade policy that includes a both a price floor and ceiling has significant advantages over a single-side ?safety valve? approach that features only a cap.

Don't Hold the U.S. to Climate Standards it Cannot Achieve

Europe is inadvertently undermining President Obama on global warming, with potentially damaging consequences for climate co-operation and transatlantic relations...

House Testimony: Morgenstern on Climate Policy and Competitiveness

RFF Senior Fellow Richard Morgenstern testifies before the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, outlining approaches for addressing emission leakage.

Slouching Towards Copenhagen?

An RFF seminar analyzes the stumbling blocks ahead for the international community as it seeks to negotiate a sweeping new global climate agreement.

Fat Tails, Weather, and Risk Management

New papers assess the challenges posed by climate change to policy decisions, including risk estimates from severe weather and other natural disasters.

Cap-and-Cashback: Regional fairness

Climate policy can be fair to families all across the...

Greenhouse Plan Spurs Lobbying

U.S. President Barack Obama's support for limiting greenhouse gas emissions has spurred a lobbying blitz in Congress, officials said...

Push to Reduce Greenhouse Gases Would Put a Price on Emitting Pollution

President Obama's endorsement of climate legislation to clamp down on greenhouse gases has set off a lobbying rush in Congress and made the air thick with rival proposals.

Carbon Footprints Are Tricky to Track

The truth is that while there is some variation in the carbon intensity of consumption across states, it is orders of magnitude smaller than what the editorial claims, thus severely overstating the degree to which cap and trade will burden some states and benefit others.

Climate Change Takes Center Stage in Congress

With climate change legislation a top U.S. priority for Democrats this year, lawmakers began zeroing in on Thursday on ways to ease the financial burden it could impose on the poor, especially in the midst of a deep economic recession.

Quick Hits From Copenhagen

Overheard here as the climate conference wraps up...

Obama Cuts Funds To Nuclear Waste Repository

President Obama has lived up to a campaign promise by cutting off most funds to develop Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a nuclear waste repository. That leaves the fate of nuclear waste, currently stored at sites throughout the United States, in limbo.

State-Federal Climate Roles: Bridging the Gaps

An RFF policy conference looks at ways to accommodate new federal climate initiatives and existing state-level policies ? and avoid imposition of pre-emptive actions by overlapping jurisdictions.

Policy Options for Addressing Greenhouse Gas Leakage

RFF Senior Fellow Carolyn Fischer and the International Trade Commission?s Alan Fox examine the challenges of designing policies to limit leakage of greenhouse gas emissions overseas that are both effective and consistent with international trade regimes.

Carbon Trading to Raise Consumer Energy Prices

Dallas Burtraw?is quoted on?how the decision about distributing revenue from a national cap and trade system could "change the distribution of wealth potentially for a century."

Budget Expects Revenue from Limits on Emissions

Dallas Burtraw's observation that "emission allowances could be the greatest creation of property rights since the 19th-century settlement of the West" is cited.?

Obama Stresses Energy Investment but Policy Battles Loom

Tim Brennan comments that President Obama's emphasis on climate legislation and renewable energy in a prime time?address indicates the importance his administration?places on the issues.?

Case for Climate Protection Authority

RFF?s Nigel Purvis makes the case for the Obama Administration to create a Climate Protection Authority and explains the potential benefits for domestic and international climate action.

Scientific Climate is Changing as Obama Takes Office

A recent RFF study that explores how a cap-and-trade plan would affect household energy costs is cited.

Russia and Ukraine's Gas Dispute

In this letter to the editor, Joel Darmstadter responds to an opinion piece regarding energy options for Europe.

Hank Paulson: Use Free Trade to Fight Climate Change

Keith Johnson summarizes Treasury Secretary Paulson's discussion about curbing greenhouse gasses at RFF's recent Policy Leadership Forum.

Making a Treaty: The Senate?s Role

In this letter to the editor, Nigel Purvis explores the benefits of forging bipartisan climate policy through Congressional-executive agreements rather than treaties.

McConnell on Marketplace

In a commentary aired December 15 on American Public Media?s Marketplace Radio, Senior Fellow Virginia McConnell?

suggests that raising taxes on gasoline would spur automakers to build greener cars ? and motivate potential buyers. ?Recently passed fuel economy standards are a step in the right direction, but high gas prices are essential. They provide incentives to manufacturers to produce the new generation of vehicles, and for consumers to buy them,? she said. ?The recent run-up in oil prices showed us what a powerful force the market can be in influencing purchase decisions and spurring innovation.?

Get Tough on Emissions Without Hurting Economy

Richard Morgenstern advocates for the Obama administration to announce a detailed plan for carbon pricing in this opinion piece.

Cap-and-Trade in the Current Economic Climate

On NPR?s All Things Considered, RFF Senior Fellow Dallas Burtraw discussed the implications of the current economic difficulties for passage of domestic climate legislation.? He said government could ease some of the pain by rebating revenues.

Sharp on Impact of Oil Price Drop

RFF President Phil Sharp was among several experts in a November 17 Wall Street Journal roundup addressing options for reducing demand for oil in the wake of falling petroleum prices. He suggested using market incentives, coupled with close government oversight, to encourage efficiency gains, establish a price on carbon to restrain greenhouse gas emissions, and seriously consider imposing a "price floor" on oil in the range of $60?$65 per barrel.

Vajjhala on Carbon Sequestration in National Journal

In an October 25, 2008, article in National Journal entitled "Big Oil Likes Clean Coal," RFF Fellow Shalini Vajjhala discusses the tradeoffs between more oil and gas drilling and carbon sequestration. "In an ideal world, you?d be able to analyze the whole cycle and whether the process of reducing emissions generates emissions. There isn?t a lot of clarity on that."

CLIMATE: Moderate Senate Dems Build "Gang of 16" to Influence Cap-and-Trade Bill

RFF is identified as a nonpartisan organization that the "Gang of 16" have touched base with regarding climate change issues.

CLIMATE: Economic Crisis Rattles Cap-and-Trade Debate

Dallas Burtraw talks about carbon taxes and climate change legislation.

And the Carbon Goes to ...

Dallas Burtraw comments on the RGGI auction.

Costs Weighed on Having Utilities Cut Back on CO2

Dallas Burtraw comments on energy efficiency in regard to the strict building standards for new homes.

Coal, a Tough Habit to Kick

Joel Darmstadter talks about the demand for coal: "In the short run, demand for coal is going to increase. Demand for electricity is increasing, and there are really no alternatives."

Surprise: Old-growth forests soak up CO2

Nigel Purvis comments on the management of temperate and boreal forests in developed countries as a component of the fight against global climate change.

Face-Off

Regarding Obama?s and McCain?s plans to address climate change, Raymond Kopp says, "It is hard to draw a distinction between the two."

The Great Energy Confusion

Phil Sharp comments that high gas prices are serving to pull Democrats and Republicans toward the center.

Candidates Call Climate Change An "Urgent" Priority

Joe Aldy is quoted about the differences regarding Obama's and McCain's climate change policy, "One can quibble with some of the details, but at end of the day, the difference between them will get washed out by negotiations between the next president and the Congress."

The Real Question: Should Oil Be Cheap?

Ian Parry comments on the favorability of returning energy tax revenue back to people through other means.

What Obama Electricity Tax?

Joe Aldy comments on the distinction between the Obama and McCain goals for emissions reductions.

Congress is on Empty for Energy Bills

Phil Sharp speaks about how Congress is responding to the energy crisis and the challenges in doing so.

Texas Governor Fights U.S. Ethanol Rule That Raises Food Costs

Phil Sharp comments on Texas's request for a waiver of a biofuels requirement rule.

Meet the Press Transcript: July 20 Al Gore, Political Roundtable

During this episode of Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw quoted Phil Sharp on how industry has viewed Al Gore's energy goals as unattainable in the near future.

Gore Urges Fast Energy Makeover: Power Grid Could Go Renewable in 10 Years, He Says

Phil Sharp comments on the energy goals recently proposed by Al Gore and notes that many feel the goals are unattainable in the near future.

What would environmentalists do with ANWR?

RFF Visiting Fellow Matthew Kotchen suggests that the potential payoff in revenues from Alaskan oil would be attractive?even to opponents of drilling.

House to Oil Companies: Use it or Lose it

Phil Sharp interprets the message being conveyed by a recent energy bill.

Ohio Members of Congress Propose Bills to Help with Gas Prices

Dallas Burtraw is quoted on the possible repercussions of some gas tax-breaks proposed in Congress.

Five Reasons to Love $4 Gas

Ian Parry is quoted on how $4-per-gallon gas prices may cause people to drive more conservatively.

U.S. Candidates React to Higher Energy Costs

Joel Darmstadter comments on the paucity of feasible ideas to control short-term costs of oil.

Campaigns Clash Over Ethanol

Joel Darmstadter comments on ethanol as a short-term solution to meet U.S. energy needs.

A Green Coal Baron

Phil Sharp is quoted several times regarding Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers' work with environmental activists.

White House Eyes Offshore Oil

Joel Darmstadter offers his views in a segment on the possible repeal of the moratorium on offshore oil drilling to help bring down petroleum prices.

Lobbyists Prep for Greenhouse Gas Bill

Raymond Kopp comments on the impact the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act could have on industry.

Where the Sun Does Shine: Will Space Solar Power Ever Be Practical?

Molly Macauley is quoted on the ability of space solar power to compete with other renewable energy technologies.