NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
September 2005
"Coupling CO2 Capture and Storage with Coal Gasification: Defining "Sequestration-Ready" IGCC"
Discussion Paper
By Jennie Stephens, Former Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy
Carbon dioxide can be separated and captured more efficiently and at a lower cost from an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal generation power plant than from a conventional pulverized coal power plant.
April, 2005
Dawning of a New Era: The LNG Story
Discussion Paper
By Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program
March 14, 2005
"Cape Wind Damage"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program
"Massachusetts is one of the few states in the country that has decided to address the climate problem and restrict carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. On paper, it has extolled the virtues of renewable energy and has put in place requirements that will force its utilities to purchase an ever increasing amount of their power from renewable sources. At this time, the only feasible renewable option for meeting a significant portion of these requirements is to build a measurable amount of wind generation. Since no one is suggesting that the state or federal government build this capacity themselves, private developers have to be willing to step up to the plate and invest their money to meet their goals."
June, 2004
Workshop on Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle: Financing and Deploying IGCC Technology in this Decade -- February 11, 2004
Discussion Paper
By William Rosenberg, Former Senior Research Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy
January, 2003
Assessing the Challenges Confronting Distributive Electricity Generation
Discussion Paper
By Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program
What role will distributive electricity technologies play in meeting future demand? Policy makers are divided on the answer. For some, these technologies represent the foundations from which a decentralized electricity system could be established––one in which small, clean generating systems gradually replace the existing system of large centralized power stations. To others, they represent an alternative to the siting and permitting problems that have plagued the construction of new transmission systems, while simultaneously realizing the high reliability standards required in an era of growing reliance on computing and communication technologies. To others still, distributive generation is seen as simply an economic alternative to meeting power needs. Finally there are skeptics who believe that smaller generators will never be as efficient or cost effective as larger centralized technologies.
September, 2000
"Localizing Global Climate Change: Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions in U.S. Cities"
Discussion Paper
By Michele Betsill, Former Research Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program, 1999-2000
November 1997
Federal Energy Research and Development for the Challenges of the 21st Century
Report
By John P. Holdren, Former Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program
October 1992
International Comparisons of Environmental Hazards: Development and Evaluation of a Method for Linking Environmental Data with the Strategic Debate Management Priorities for Risk Management
Discussion Paper
By Vicki Norberg-Bohm and William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development; Co-director, Sustainability Science Program; Faculty Chair, ENRP
This paper describes and evaluates a method for comparing environmental hazards within and between countries. The method is intended for use by international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and governments that are involved in setting national environmental agendas or developing environmental programs that require international coordination. The core of the method is a common set of indicators that can be used to characterize any environmental problem. The indicators are designed to reflect both causes and consequences of environmental problems, and to pose realistic demands on available data. We show that by analyzing indicator data in various ways, the method can help to identify sets of "similar" hazards, to flag unusual or outlier hazards that might otherwise be ignored, to show which countries have common environmental problems, and to assign management priorities among hazards. We recognize the central role of values in structuring such analyses. Because the method addresses the value question directly, it can be used to illuminate the implications of preferences that (for example) emphasize present as opposed to future impacts, health as opposed to ecosystem effects, or pollution emissions as opposed to their consequences. Application of the method is demonstrated and evaluated through country studies of India, Kenya, the Netherlands, and the United States.
May 14, 2013
Genesis of Recupera Chile
Fact Sheet
By Doug Ahlers
Following Hurricane Katrina, the Belfer Center's Broadmoor Project was developed by then Belfer Center Senior Fellow Doug Ahlers to work with the Broadmoor neighborhood to rebuild the devastated community. Highly successful, Broadmoor is now a model of recovery, almost 90 percent rebuilt, with a new charter school, library, and community center. (See Broadmoor Project.)
With Ahlers vision and leadership, the Broadmoor Project has also helped other disaster-struck communities. Here, Ahlers describes how the Broadmoor model is currently assisting in the recovery of three Chilean communities nearly destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami of 2010. The genesis of the Recupera Chile initiative is described below.
August 9, 2012
"We Shall Not Be Moved" Spotlights New Orleans' Rebuilding Efforts
News
By Tom Wooten, Former Research Fellow, Broadmoor Project: New Orleans
We Shall Not Be Moved, released in August 2012, is an account of how five New Orleans neighborhoods rebuilt in the years following Hurricane Katrina. Focusing on recovery efforts in the hard-hit neighborhoods of Broadmoor, Hollygrove, Lakeview, the Lower Ninth Ward, and Village de l'Est, author Tom Wooten, a research fellow with the Belfer Center's Broadmoor Project, tells the story of this rebirth through the eyes, voices, and experiences of residents who refused to give up in the wake of one of the country’s worst disasters.
