In this edition:
- Comments on BLM’s new fracking regulations
- Improving energy efficiency in buildings
- A policy option for the EU Emissions Trading System
BLM Fracking Regulations
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released the “first federal fracking rules” since the US shale boom began. The rules apply to oil and gas producers who drill on public land. In a new blog post, RFF’s Alan Krupnick writes: “Our rapid assessment is that, other than for the requirement of frack tanks … no new ground is being broken vis-à-vis the states as a whole … all that can be said in general is that with state regulations extremely heterogeneous and the ground shifting so quickly, BLM’s regulations are more stringent for some states and less stringent for others.”
Energy Efficiency in Buildings
New York City has formed a technical working group to help increase the energy efficiency of the city’s buildings—which account for “nearly three-quarters of New York’s greenhouse gas pollution” —with the goal of cutting emissions from buildings by 30 percent by 2025 and 60 percent by 2050.
The Big Apple is also among several US cities that have already taken steps to improve the energy efficiency of buildings by passing energy benchmarking and disclosure ordinances. New research by RFF’s Karen Palmer and Margaret Walls analyzes the potential of these programs. Walls notes in a blog post that “these new information policies show great promise,” but rigorous evaluation is essential to understand what would have occurred in the absence of the programs.
European Emissions Fall
Early data suggest that firms regulated under the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) generated 3.7 percent fewer total emissions in 2014, a trend attributed to “higher output from renewable power producers and lower electricity consumption.” A formal breakdown of EU emissions in 2014 will be published in April and is expected to provide “an indication of demand for carbon permits” in the future.
RFF’s Dallas Burtraw has noted before that current demand for EU ETS permits is being dwarfed by supply, creating a “problematic decline in the price of emissions allowances.” He suggests that the imposition of a price floor could solve this imbalance by offering a “nondiscretionary and rule-based approach [that] helps markets to better anticipate future changes.”
