Analysis Collaboration Topics

(F) Improve Policy Analysis Tools and Integration of Information and Tools at State and Federal Levels

Develop improved policy analysis tools at the state and national levels, including scenario analysis tools; identify ways to link/integrate policy tools at the state and national levels.

Topic collaborators are currently working on implementation plans, based on the workshop discussions — please watch these pages for updates. You can also find out more about the initiative participants on the collaborators page.

Activity No. 1 – Identify and Advertise Existing Information, Tools and Resources

• Goal: Create a comprehensive list of information and tools for policy analysis
• Current related activities:
  • Many states and federal department use many different tools – these should be identified and shared (REMI-jobs, IMPLAN, IPM/electric sector, GE-MAPS, ADAGE, NEMS/national, MARKAL/national, Altos Management-1, VISION (DOE transportation), AMIGA, EPA exploratory modeling, RPA – USDA, state foresters inventory state forests, HYTRANS – ORNL (national model hydrogen in vehicles), SMOKE and C-MAQ (air quality models);
  • Also many resources available (e.g. DOE Technical Assistance Program, EPA Clean Energy/Environment Program, etc.)
• Next steps:
  • Identify existing information, tools and resources available;
  • Share the information and tools on a Web site
  • Perhaps put together an e-mail listserv for communication
• Lead: DOE-EERE-PAE and NREL
• Participants: Include environmentalists and industrial groups

Activity No. 2 – Improve Policy Analysis Modeling

Activity Update (February 2007) -

The group has two major projects under way:

• The Clean Energy-Environment Tools and Resources Compendium
  EPA is putting information about tools to evaluate clean energy policies and programs into one easy-to-access database. Each tool in the database is publicly available, free of charge and accessible through links provided. Users can sort tools and resources by: Steps that states typically follow in a clean energy planning process, a list of frequent questions, and topic (e.g., GHG, economics, public health, etc). It should be available in February 2007.
• A Guidebook for Assessing the Multiple Benefits of Clean Energy
  EPA is near completion of a guidebook to help state governments analyze the multiple benefits, including the environmental, macroeconomic and energy system benefits, of energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean distributed generation initiatives. The guidebook presents a framework for assessing multiple benefits, a compendium of clean energy benefits analyses, concepts methods and tools available to quantify and analyze the environmental, public health, macroeconomic and energy benefits of clean energy initiatives and an overview of how some states have used multiple benefits analyses to advance their initiatives. A draft will be available for peer review in March 2007.

Activity Overview

• Goal:
  • Improve the quality of policy analysis modeling and make the tools and results accessible to more entities; and
  • Perform some specific model comparisons to help with decision-making:
    • A comparison of technology supply curves; how different are they?
    • Scenario analysis – at least 3 scenarios, if not stochastic
• Current related activities:
  • Activity #1 (Identify existing information tools and models)
  • Stanford energy modeling forum and
  • DOE-EPA Renewable Energy Modeling Forum; and
  • NYSERDA assesses national and state-side energy markets and informs stakeholders – other might be able to learn from their feedback process.
• Next steps:
  • Identify lessons learned from existing forums
  • Conduct a phone survey to understand decision-maker needs better;
  • Develop better technology-specific information to understand impact on big picture
  • Develop guidance on how to structure models (i.e. develop common methodology)
  • Especially for those without modeling capabilities, provide a clear and concise interpretation of applicability (by technology and region) and results at the decision-maker level, for each model and the results of any particular run, or set of scenarios;
  • DOE and EPA should help fund travel of state agencies with limited budgets
• Lead: DOE-EERE-PAE and EPA – Dan Loughlin, Denise Mulholland (co-leader)
• Participants: TBD

Activity No. 3 – Attempt to Integrate State and Federal Policy Analysis

• Goal: Strengthen national/state policy analysis personnel connection
  • Consolidation of DOE regional offices has created a gap,
  • Federal offices need to remember to interface with states.
• Current related activities: DOE/EPA modeling forum (called REMAP) – next forum is focusing on modeling renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies.
• Next steps:
  • Identify ways for state and national analysts to speak about policy analysis on a regular basis.
  • Identify/create regional models that speak to state issues
    • Linking models together is necessary to help states but difficult,
    • This forum reinforces the significance of EPA's efforts to integrate models together.
• Lead: NEEDS LEADER
• Participants: TBD

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