Dr. Marilyn Brown presented to the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact on the power of Demand Response as an important climate solution in Georgia. She highlighted the positive effects of demand response programs on customer energy bills as well as their ability to promote carbon emission reductions. See her presentation to learn more.
Marilyn Brown received the prestigious Argon Award at Southface Institute's annual Visionary Celebration, joining the ranks of sustainability heroes, including the first recipient, Ray C. Anderson. She gave the featured talk on the progress and future of the sustainability movement.
Dr. Marilyn Brown was the lead author of Chapter 5 on Equity in a recent National Academies report on net metering of rooftop solar systems in evolving electricity systems. Read the chapter here.
Many MSEEM capstones provide insights into impactful climate solutions, including these: Ansel Ahabue Eco-certified Buildings, Shireen Khan Efficiency for Emissions-Intensive Homes, Suprita Chakravarthy Clean Car Standards, and Tim Sterling
At MIT's Applied Energy Conference, Marilyn Brown gave a keynote address co-authored with Snehal Kale (a Georgia Tech School of Public Policy PhD student).
The final report from the SE Decarbonization Workshop, has been published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute.
The Workshop’s goals were to develop decarbonization strategies, strengthen our networks for addressing decarbonization in the SE, and develop partnership principles.
Marilyn Brown closed out the Citizens' Climate Education's Southeast Regional Conference hosted at Georgia Tech's Kendeda Building on March 5, 2023 with a presentation that talked about how low-carbon electrification will transform the globe. The need for speed and scale requires going further faster--extending our current practices and imagining a different future. 
Aline Banboukian, PhD candidate, presented a poster on "The role of state and federal governance in coal plant retirements: A case study of the state of Georgia, USA" at the 3rd International Energy Research and Social Science conference in Manchester, England. Her analysis suggests that water regulations are driving coal plant retirements and CO2 reductions in Georgia.
On June 30, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled on the future of regulating pollution from the U.S. electric sector, curtailing EPA's authority to set emissions reduction targets for power plants. But the federal government has never set such targets. The Clean Power Plan (under former President Barack Obama) and the Affordable Clean Energy Rule (under former President Donald Trump) never took effect. They were “vacated and remanded.” In a sense, this ruling is like Don Quixote’s jousting with windmills; it strikes down an authority that has never been deployed. Read more
In Spring 2022, student teams delivered fantastic papers and video presentations, buoyed by their wide-ranging expertise. Seven of their projects are highlighted here, and you can learn more about them by watching their 20-minute videos here at Georgia Tech’s Drawdown Georgia research portal. Here's one finding: only 7% of Georgia's solar generation comes from rooftop and small-scale solar:
When a building like Georgia Tech’s Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design goes up, it turns out that it really does have a measurable impact on the pace of green building adoption in the community, according to first-of-its-kind research conducted in the School of Public Policy and School of Economics.
A new paper by NREL, Georgia Tech, and others places cities on the front line of efforts to electrify transportation and integrate EVs with buildings connected to a clean grid. Cities are driving changes principally via wealthier populations often supported by programs financed by raising the electric rates of all customers, resulting in concerns for an equitable transition. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/drRW7A4
Only about 20% of government funding for low-income energy in the U.S. is spent on structural and equipment improvements to housing--80% is spent on bill payment assistance. Going forward, leveraging health care benefits could grow the efficiency funding wedges.
The economics of low-income home weatherization programs could look quite different if health benefits are included. https://lnkd.in/daEqzBV.
Read more:
Two researchers in this lab used the GT-NEMS modeling system to assess effects of increase emissions of conventional air pollutants due to relaxing energy policies. PHD student, Yufei Li, guided by Dr. Marilyn Brown both contributed to this recent publication.
“Finding the right fuel mix” drew a crowd at the Energy Research & Social Science (ER&SS) Conference at Arizona State University on May 30, 2019.
After more than two years of deliberation, last week the City of Atlanta officially adopted a plan to transition to 100% clean energy by 2035.
Georgia Tech hosted the first town hall meeting on the goal, and Matt Cox (a Georgia Tech alum and a PhD from the Climate and Energy Policy) and his team from the Greenlink Group spearheaded the analytical support for the goal. Above is a photo of Matt after making remarks at the final city council vote.
Taxing carbon to account for its environmental and human health damages is the efficient way to cut CO2 emissions. And that’s what most economists are advocating. But progressives appear to prefer the government mandates embedded in the Green New Deal. Both approaches (and others) could probably be made to work…the problem is that we don’t have a majority supporting any single policy intervention. This could cause an enduring stalemate at a time when delayed action is so costly.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. The Affordable Clean Energy, or ACE, rule would set state guidelines for plans addressing emissions from coal-fired power plants.
What are "the motivations for organizations to build and certify green and why we might expect Georgia Tech’s demonstration project to begin market transformation in the building and construction industry." Read more here.
by Professor Marilyn A. Brown
Presented at the Global Change Solutions Panel
Georgia Institute of Technology
March 27, 2018
Dr. Marilyn A. Brown
Regents and Brook Byers Professor
Climate and Energy Policy Lab
Georgia Institute of Technology
See the RealClear Policy op ed on "The Partisan Divide Over the Carbon Tax Is All Smoke"
By Alex Brill & Scott Ganz
January 29, 2018
Dr. Marilyn A. Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor
Climate and Energy Policy Lab
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Marilyn A. Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor
Climate and Energy Policy Lab
Georgia Institute of Technology
On September 22nd, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that low-cost, imported solar panels from China and other countries have hurt two “domestic” manufacturers: Chinese-owned Suniva and German-owned SolarWorld. Both companies are now insolvent.
Dr. Marilyn A. Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor
Climate and Energy Policy Lab
Georgia Institute of Technology
President Trump is pulling the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement, which calls on countries to limit global warming by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Marilyn Brown, the Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, explains the ramifications of Trump’s decision for the U.S. and the world and discusses the rise of the Carbon Dividend Plan.
Dr. Marilyn A. Brown,
Regents and Brook Byers Professor
Climate and Energy Policy Lab
Georgia Institute of Technology
The U.S. must stay in the Paris Accord to help combat the clear and present danger of climate change. If the U.S. does not act, how can we expect others to address the problem? The U.S. Senate did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol 20 years ago because the Protocol did not include goals for developing countries. Now the U.S. is threatening to be a “free rider,” but in reality it would be a “big loser.”
Marilyn Brown, a professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, 2007 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize, and co-founder of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, made a strong case for the value of efficiency projects during her presentation “Selling Energy Efficiency in a Climate-Conscious World”. Her discussion highlighted the importance of educating consumers, businesses, and politicians about practical policy solutions that drive increased adoption of energy efficiency projects.
In Michigan this week, President Trump called for a re-evaluation of the fuel economy regulations set by the Obama administration. These standards require automakers to increase the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
Atlanta, GA—Wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources now make up just about 13 percent of the nation’s electricity supply, but transitioning to 100 percent clean energy in the South is both necessary and feasible, academic experts and clean energy advocates said at a lunch panel held at Georgia Tech on Wednesday.
“We can and we must transition to 100% clean renewable energy,” said Jennette Gayer, director of Environment Georgia. “Nationally and globally the move to 100% renewable is taking off with major businesses like Google and cities like San Diego setting 100% goals but this is the first 100% renewables discussion in Georgia.”
ATLANTA, GA – City skylines have long been a symbol of innovation and prosperity. What you can’t see is that these same buildings are some of the United States’ largest energy consumers and are therefore responsible for significant amounts of the nation’s carbon pollution. However, a new study by Dr. Marilyn Brown and the Georgia Institute of Technology has found that by implementing the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, which was finalized one year ago today, commercial building owners and occupants in the United States could realize total annual electricity savings of $11.3 billion in 2030, a reduction of 6.7% compared to doing nothing at all.
Without any changes in the way we produce and use electricity, Georgia households can expect an 8.4 percent increase in electricity bills over the next 15 years, while the typical U.S. household will see bills increase by 18 percent. But a new report has found that implementing the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan will cut costs. The average Georgia household would save $2,070 in electricity costs over the same period, while U.S.
This past weekend, licensed reactor operators at the Tennessee Valley Authority safely connected a new source of nuclear power to its electric system. It is an historic moment for the nuclear industry because it is the first new U.S. nuclear generation of the 21st century. Marilyn Brown, the Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, chairs the TVA Nuclear Oversight Committee. She explains the importance of this achievement.
On February 9th, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court placed a “stay” on implementing the Clean Power Plan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants. With a 5-to-4 vote, the Court has put a halt to the regulation while its legal fate is being decided. The request for a stay came from a coalition of 27 states, led by West Virginia and including most of the states in the South. The claim is that the regulation is overly far-reaching and burdensome.
In 1992, President George H. W. Bush signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) along with leaders of 194 other countries. The treaty’s objective was to “Stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” Few knew that at that time, dangerous interference was well already underway.
Using "bubble charts," Figures 1 and 2 highlight the trajectory of four cities, from 2001 to 2010. The backdrop of bubbles are the 2010 energy and carbon dioxide footprints of all 100 metro areas in the U.S.
By Marilyn A. Brown, Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology
November 19, 2015
The U.S. fleet of fossil fuel fired power plants is our nation’s single largest source of climate-destabilizing pollution and one of the largest sources in the world.
Climate change presents a clear and present danger to human health and the environment. All Americans need to be protected from the serious adverse impacts of climate pollution, in whichever state they live.
Making use of energy efficiency can help contain the cost of complying with the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and reduce electricity bills. Yet as climate policy discussions try to balance the urgent demand for quick action with upfront capital investments, energy efficiency isn’t without its skeptics. As efficiency programs are being ramped up by utilities with an over-capacity of power plants, rates may also rise for a few years before they fall. Policymakers and stakeholders need to get past “rate fixation” to see the long-term value of energy efficiency. With the strong “nudge” of the Clean Power Plan, we have an opportunity to cut future electricity costs while addressing climate change.
CEPL has just released a Georgia Tech report on the Clean Power Plan.
Atlanta’s skyline has long been a symbol of innovation and prosperity. What you can’t see is that these same buildings are some of the city’s largest energy consumers and polluters. The city is proposing a benchmarking ordinance that will help redraw this energy and environmental profile.
"The new EPA carbon pollution limits will not only accelerate the retirement of the nation's oldest coal plants, but will also also encourage states and power producers to help consumers use less electricity. This flexibility is very important in the South, where the efficient use of energy has been a struggle."
"In 2013, TVA met the Administration's 30% carbon reduction goal. Other utilities in the South can surely do the same by 2030."
Recently, Dr. Benjamin Zycher wrote a piece for Our Energy Policy, detailing reasons why he believes that the US government's Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is not advisable or useful for policy analysis. He argues that US CO2 emissions are a small piece of total global emissions, that the SCC violates OMB guidelines, and that the government is not an impartial or disinterested actor. For these reasons, he advocates for congressional approval in using the SCC and any regulation of greenhouse gases. CEPL director Marilyn Brown and CEPL student Matt Cox, along with former CEPL co-director Paul Baer, respond with this comment.
By Marilyn Brown, Georgia Institute of Technology
Working with colleagues at Georgia Tech and the Vermont Law School and with support from a MacArthur Foundation grant, I had the opportunity to help design and evaluate a survey about energy security that was completed by more than 2,000 individuals from 10 countries. The survey measured individuals’ concerns regarding specific dimensions of energy security, including resource availability, energy affordability, climate, and equity. Our results identified perspectives on energy security that aligned strikingly with several socio-demographic attributes.
By Marilyn Brown, Georgia Institute of Technology
Thanks to breakthroughs in seismic imaging, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the US in 2012 reduced its reliance on much dirtier coal by shifting to gas-fired power plants. This trend is expected to continue, spurred by low gas prices and increased regulation on coal. The move to shale gas is being heralded as a key to economic prosperity and a clean energy future. But there are other options for displacing baseload electricity from retired coal plants, the principals being nuclear, renewables and energy efficiency. Will the gas bonanza enable or postpone the transition to these cleaner options?
