Policy Briefs + Analysis

• Why Interregional Transmission Matters – And What’s Blocking It   |  April 2026 
  • This policy brief explains how stronger connections between regional grids can lower costs, reduce emissions, and improve resilience during extreme weather. 
• Federal Policy Options for Improving Grid Reliability and Reducing Costs with Transmission  |  January 2025
  • Which federal transmission policy would deliver the greatest value? This policy brief compares four approaches and finds that region-specific requirements optimized for cost and reliability produce the largest modeled benefits.
• Potential Impacts of Subsidizing Transmission  |  December 2024
  • How much could a federal transmission tax credit deliver? This policy brief finds that a 30% investment tax credit could add 25 GW of capacity, save $562 million annually, and lower emissions.

Research Papers + Publications

• Implications of policy-driven transmission expansion for costs, emissions and reliability in the USA  |  December 2025
  • This peer-reviewed study evaluates federal proposals such as the BIG WIRES Act, finds that such requirements could expand interregional transmission by 68% and improve reliability during extreme weather. 
• Bridging the Gaps: The Impact of Interregional Transmission on Emissions and Reliability  |  August 2024
  • In collaboration with MIT CEEPR, this working paper models the BIG WIRES Act and finds the policy could expand interregional transmission by 68%, save $487 million annually, and reduce CO2 emissions by 43.33 million metric tons. 
• Evaluating the Impact of the Connect the Grid Act for Texas   |  June 2024
  • This MIT CEEPR research commentary evaluates the Connect the Grid Act, which would connect ERCOT to neighboring grids. Modeling suggests the policy could reduce household outages by 48% to 79% and deliver substantial annual savings.
• Evaluating the Impact of the BIG WIRES Act  |  January 2024
  • Preliminary modeling in this MIT CEEPR research commentary finds that the BIG WIRES Act could reduce outages by 58% during a Winter Storm Elliott-scale event and save $330 million annually..

Policy Briefs + Analysis

• Data Centers and the Grid: Temporal Flexibility Can Lower Costs, But May Increase Emissions  |  July 2025
  • Flexible data center operations can lower grid costs, but emissions outcomes depend on the regional energy mix. This policy brief explains what that tradeoff means for policies designed to manage growing data center demand.
• Data Centers and the Grid | July 2025
  • Moving data center workloads away from peak hours can reduce grid costs, but may increase emissions where grids rely more heavily on fossil fuels. This one-page policy insight explains the policy tradeoff.

Research Papers + Publications

• Flexible data centers reduce power system costs but can increase emissions | July 2026
  • This iScience paper models flexible data center operations across Texas, the Mid-Atlantic, and the western United States. Costs fall in every region, while emissions decline only where renewable power is sufficiently competitive.
• Flexible Data Centers and the Grid: Lower Costs, Higher Emissions? | August 2025
  • Flexible data centers lower system costs across three U.S. regions, with savings reaching 5% in Texas. This MIT CEEPR research brief explains that emissions can fall by up to 40% in Texas but rise in regions with less clean power.

Research Papers + Publications

• Global Climate Cooperation After 2024: A Proposal for a Heavy Industry Climate Coalition | July 2025
  • A heavy-industry climate coalition could pair carbon pricing with border adjustments, climate finance, technology transfer, and market access. This working paper proposes a tiered approach designed to broaden participation and reduce global emissions.
• Evaluating the Economic and Environmental Impacts of the Foreign Pollution Fee Act on Carbon-Intensive Sectors  | June 2025
  • The Foreign Pollution Fee Act would have little effect on U.S. steel and aluminum production or global emissions, according to this MIT CEEPR research commentary. The model finds modest price increases and no tariff revenue as trade shifts to avoid the fee.
• The Global Effects of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms | June 2025
  • A heavy-industry climate coalition could pair carbon pricing with border adjustments, climate finance, technology transfer, and market access. The working paper proposes a tiered approach designed to broaden participation and reduce global emissions.
• How Carbon Border Adjustments Might Drive Global Climate Policy Momentum | October 2024
  • The European Union's carbon border adjustment is already encouraging other countries to consider carbon pricing. This report explains how aligned policies, including potential U.S. action, could build momentum for climate cooperation.
• Bridging the Divide: Assessing the Viability of International Cooperation on Border Carbon Adjustments | May 2024
  • International cooperation could reduce trade conflict, administrative costs, and fragmentation as more countries adopt carbon border adjustments. This MIT CEEPR research brief assesses three emerging models for coordinating policy.
• Carbon Border Adjustments, Climate Clubs, and Subsidy Races When Climate Policies Vary | July 2023
  • Carbon border adjustments and climate clubs can encourage stronger climate action, but neither can resolve every tension created by differing national policies. This peer-reviewed paper examines those tradeoffs and the risk of international subsidy races.

Policy Briefs + Analysis

• Energy Poverty is Shifting in America: Changing LIHEAP Can Help  |  January 2026
  • Energy poverty is increasingly concentrated in the South and Southwest, while LIHEAP funding still favors colder states. This policy brief recommends updating federal allocations to better match where household energy burdens are highest.
• One-Pager: Energy Poverty is Shifting in America: Changing LIHEAP Can Help  |  January 2026
  • This policy insight explains how updating LIHEAP allocations could better match where household energy burdens are highest.

Research Papers + Publications

• Renewables and Electricity Affordability: Untangling Correlation from Causation | December 2025
  • Renewable portfolio standards are not associated with higher retail electricity prices after accounting for broader trends, the MIT CEEPR working paper finds. It points instead to rate design, grid resilience, and rising demand as key factors.
• US federal resource allocations are inconsistent with concentrations of energy poverty | October 2024
  • Federal energy assistance no longer aligns with the changing geography of energy poverty, according to this peer-reviewed study. A revised LIHEAP formula would shift more support toward burdened households in warmer states.

Policy Briefs + Analysis

• Deploying Established Climate Technologies and Solutions for Buildings  |  November 2025 
  • Established technologies can reduce emissions and strengthen the resilience of buildings and infrastructure, but high upfront costs and weak policy frameworks slow deployment. This co-developed UNFCCC policy brief recommends measures to expand access, especially in developing countries.. 

Research Papers + Publications

• Energy transition and equity: Quantifying pathways to building decarbonization based on notions of fairness | November 2025
  • Equal building-retrofit subsidies can unintentionally favor higher-income homeowners. This peer-reviewed study offers a framework for designing incentives that advance both emissions reductions and equity.
• Semantic Building Energy Modeling: Analysis Across Geospatial Scales | May 2025
  • A new modeling framework estimates energy use and retrofit potential for individual buildings at statewide scale. Applied to 2.5 million Massachusetts homes, the approach can support more targeted incentives and homeowner guidance.
• Deal or No Deal: U.S. Homeowners’ Willingness to Pay for Residential Building Retrofits | February 2025
  • Upfront cost, income, and concern about household emissions strongly shape homeowners' willingness to invest in retrofits. This peer-reviewed study offers a model for targeting subsidies more effectively.
• A Hypergraph Model Shows the Carbon Reduction Potential of Effective Space Use in Housing | September 2024
  • Using space more efficiently can reduce housing emissions as much as, or more than, conventional envelope upgrades in some climates. This paper introduces a model for generating and evaluating lower-carbon floor plans.
• An eight-step simulation-based framework to help cities reach building-related emissions reduction goals | October 2023
  • A case study of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from the MIT Sustainable Design Lab identifies a feasible path toward near-zero building emissions and the workforce and supply-chain barriers to reaching it.
• Carbon Reduction Technology Pathways for Existing Buildings in Eight Cities  |  April 2023
  • Deep building retrofits could reduce emissions by 34% to 84% across eight cities, with grid decarbonization increasing the gains. The study shows why local retrofit strategies must reflect each city's buildings and energy system.

Research Papers + Publications

• Plug & Charge: Recommendations to Speed Deployment | May 2025
  • Plug & Charge lets EV drivers begin charging and pay automatically by connecting the vehicle. This MIT CEEPR white paper recommends steps to standardize and deploy the technology, improving public-charger reliability and ease of use.
• Challenges to Expanding EV Adoption and Policy Responses | October 2024
  • High purchase costs, range anxiety, and inadequate public charging continue to slow U.S. electric-vehicle adoption. This MIT CEEPR working paper reviews policy options for building a more reliable, accessible, and equitable charging network.
• Policies for Electrifying the Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet in the United States | October 2023
  • Charging-station subsidies can accelerate electric-vehicle adoption more cost-effectively than vehicle tax credits or manufacturer mandates, our researchers found. The analysis compares policies capable of reaching a 50% zero-emission share of new vehicle sales.
• Accelerating Electric Vehicle Charging Investments: A Real Options Approach to Policy Design | January 2023
  • Uncertainty about future demand can delay private investment in fast charging even when grants make projects appear viable. This MIT CEEPR working paper finds that long-term contracts could trigger investment at 68% lower cost than conventional grants.
• How Much are Electric Vehicles Driven? Depends on the EV  | January 2023
  • Long-range electric vehicles are driven about as much as gasoline vehicles, this MIT CEEPR working paper finds. The result challenges assumptions that EVs deliver smaller emissions or tax-revenue effects because owners travel less.