Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #10 – David Adelman

For this week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast interview, we have Josh Rhodes interviewing David Adelman, his colleague at the University of Texas, about David’s research on “Modeling the Evolution of a Greener Grid.”

David’s research compares renewable portfolio standards, which are the most commonly used instrument for encouraging renewable power, with carbon pricing, which could be implemented through a cap-and-trade system or a tax. David concludes that carbon pricing is “dramatically more effective at reducing carbon emissions and increasing the percentage of renewables than a renewable portfolio standard.” And he explains why even a modest carbon tax could be better for the climate than a relatively aggressive renewable portfolio standard. At the same time, David acknowledges that renewable portfolio standards may, in some cases, help surmount non-market barriers to renewable power.

The interview principally draws from a 2018 article that David wrote with with David Spence titled “U.S. climate policy and the regional economics of electricity generation.”

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links: Apple | Google

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