Featured and Recent Publications

A list of all Climate and Energy Policy Laboratory publications is also available.

Featured Publications

  • Scientific AmericanScientific American story on green jobs. Would a Green New Deal Add or Kill Jobs? - Scientific American (2019). Political candidates in the U.S. have been announcing plans to address climate change at a record pace, and elected officials are releasing various forms of carbon tax legislation. These initiatives are rekindling debate about how much of a price to put on carbon and what effects the options would have on the environment and the economy. Our analysis finds that starting with a moderate, but escalating tax would have positive job impacts: "a cleaner-energy approach motivated by carbon taxes would promote innovation, open up new markets, and produce an economy with more jobs—a greener economy worth investing in."
  • Ozone GraphicShen, H., Chen, Y., Li, Y., Pavur, G., Brown, M., Driscoll, C. (2019) "Relaxing Energy Policies Coupled with Climate Change Will Significantly Undermine Efforts to Attain Ozone Standards," One Earth 1, 1-11. The Trump administration's relaxation of energy policies combined with climate change will cause air quality to decline in the U.S. A new paper by Georgia Tech scientists focuses on ground-level ozone created when nitrogen oxide from the combustion of fossil fuels and other volatile organic compounds interact with heat and sunlight. Ozone is detrimental to human health and ecosystems and is often overlooked when energy policies are being debated. Our forecast of increased ozone pollution is in stark contrast to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, CAFE Standards, and renewable incentives, which would have resulted in cleaner air.

  • anmol screen shotDoctoral Candidate Anmol Soni's article in The Cipher Brief’s Academic incubator program. Disruptive Technologies in Operational Energy usage: Programmatic and Technological Path-dependence (2019) 

  • LCOEBrown, M.A., A. Favero, V.M. Thomas, and A. Banboukian. (2019) “The Economic and Environmental Performance of Biomass Power as an Intermediate Resource for Power Production,” Utilities Policy 58: 52-62. https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1YzH53Peo9VR76

  • Number of LED patentsKim, Yeong Jae and Marilyn A. Brown (2019) “Impact of Energy-Efficiency Policies on Innovation: The Case of Lighting Technologies." Energy Policy, 128, 539-552.(High resolution graphic here: https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0301421519300382-gr1_lrg.jpg)

  • CaliforniaMonyei, C., B. Sovacool, M. Brown, K. Jenkins, S. Viriri, and Y. Li. (2019) “Justice, Poverty, and Electricity Decarbonization,” The Electricity Journal, 32(1), 47-51. This paper discusses the “decarbonization paradox”: a situation where apparently beneficial increases in electricity supply capacity coupled with more diversified and renewable energy mix is being achieved at the expense of household energy security and affordability. Data from Germany, California, and Australia are examined. We point to several strategies to avoid the paradox, including load-shifting, EE, coal-to-gas switching, and CCS.

  • Smart Grid GraphicBrown, M. A., Zhou, S., & Ahmadi, M. (2018) Smart grid governance: An international review of evolving policy issues and innovations. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, DOI: 10.1002/wene.290. The electric power systems of many industrialized nations are challenged by the need to accommodate distributed renewable generation, increasing demands of a digital society, growing threats to infrastructure security, and concerns over global climate change. The “smart grid” – with a two-way flow of electricity and information between utilities and consumers – can help address these challenges. This paper describes the many barriers and concerns that hinder smart-grid deployment and the drivers and motivations that promote it.

Other Recent Publications