Author Archives: Scott Anders

About Scott Anders

Mr. Anders is the Director of the Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC), an academic and research center of the University of San Diego School of Law. He joined EPIC in October 2005 as its inaugural director and developed both its academic and research programs. Mr. Anders has 15 years of experience working on energy issues in California. His current work focuses on regulatory and policy issues relating to the electricity and natural gas industries and greenhouse gases. He has authored or co-authored numerous reports and papers on topics including energy efficiency, distributed generation, mitigating greenhouse gases, and smart grid strategies.

Does Your Rooftop Solar System Reduce Your Carbon Footprint? It Depends…

Posted on August 17, 2016

At first glance this is a pretty straight forward issue. If you put solar modules on your home or business, you are generating clean, emissions-free electricity. Right? Well, it depends…in part on how you paid for your system. If you … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Greenhouse Gas, Renewable Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Causation as the Basis for Attributing Greenhouse Emissions from Electricity

Posted on May 25, 2016

I have written about the importance of electric emissions factors to estimating greenhouse gas emissions in inventories and the impacts of policies to reduce emissions (see here, here, and here). This post discusses the issue of attributing emissions from electricity … Continue reading →

Posted in Greenhouse Gas | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Estimating the GHG Emissions Impacts of Reducing or Displacing Electricity: Is it time for a standard method in California?

Posted on January 13, 2016

California has adopted legislation and has executive orders in place laying out aggressive, long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. There are also specific energy policies including those to increase efficiency, generate more renewable electricity, and to reduce fossil fuel use … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas, Renewable Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Splitting the Emissions Baby: Allocating GHG Reductions in the Electricity Sector Part II

Posted on December 1, 2015

In my last post, I discussed the dilemma of how to allocate the avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emission between policies that policies to increase renewable electricity and reduce electricity consumption. Estimating the effects of increased renewable first will artificially increase … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas, Renewable Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Splitting the Emissions Baby: Allocating GHG Reductions in the Electricity Sector Part I

Posted on November 5, 2015

One area of our work at EPIC is to provide technical support to cities, counties, and regional planning organizations in the climate planning process. This work includes estimating greenhouse gas emissions for inventories and the reductions expected from a variety of policies … Continue reading →

Posted in Greenhouse Gas | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Half-Empty Planes: Utilization Rates for California’s Electric Grid Part II

Posted on July 14, 2015

In Part I of this post, we discussed the concept of asset utilization — or load factor — and looked at recent trends for California’s investor-owned utilities (IOU). The trend over the past two decades for IOU load factors has been … Continue reading →

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Half-Empty Planes: Utilization Rates for California’s Electric Grid Part I

Posted on June 30, 2015

The electric grid is designed to handle the highest demand expected in a given period, commonly referred to as peak demand. Depending on many factors, the time needed for peak demand and period of high demand approaching peak can be … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Greenhouse Gas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments