Canadian province of Ontario has launched a clean energy strategy to maximize economic development while reducing pollution. Our January 2011 report, Maximizing Jobs From Clean Energy: Ontario’s ‘Buy Local’ Policy, details how Ontario’s bold clean energy program – in just over a year – has resulted in the promise of 43,000 clean energy jobs in support of 5,000 MW of clean energy projects.
Download Full Report or View the Executive Summary
North Carolina consumers and businesses would pay more for slower Internet access when communities are preempted from building broadband infrastructure according to a new analysis by ILSR's New Rules Project. A similar conclusion was reached in looking at broadband offerings in and around Minneapolis/St. Paul. Download the reports:
This September 2010 report shows that community solar power can offer unique benefits in the expansion of solar power, from greater participation and ownership of solar to a greater dispersion of the economic benefits of harnessing the sun’s energy. But community solar faces significant barriers in a market where the “old rules” favor corporate, large-scale development. New rules – better community solar policy and regulations – are needed to remove these barriers.
Executive Summary - Full Report
Self-Reliant Cities
Energy and the Transformation of Urban America - by David Morris
Originally published in 1982, we're making this book available as a free download since many of its discussions are as relevant today as they were 25 years ago. The first half of discusses the century-long struggle by cities to gain autonomy and authority from state governments and create their own planning and service delivery capacities. The second part describes the first urban-based localization movements and the successes and challenges. We've pulled out a particularly nice section to stand on its own, Chapter 9: The Ecological City (with new forward).
Download the full book with the new forward
Rural Power: Community-Scaled Renewable Energy and Rural Economic Development
The next 20 years could generate as much as $1 trillion in new renewable energy investment in rural America. This September 2008, Ford Foundation-sponsored study by John Farrell and David Morris provides a policy roadmap for states and the federal government that would encourage modest-sized renewable energy facilities and local ownership.
Full Report - Executive Summary - Press Release
Stop Trashing the Climate
Released to coincide with the UN's World Environment Day on June 5, 2008, this report documents the link between climate change and unsustainable patterns of consumption and wasting. The study dispels myths about the climate benefits of landfill gas recovery and waste incineration, outlines policies needed to effect change, and offers a roadmap to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a short period. Co-authored by ILSR, the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA) and Eco-Cycle, Stop Trashing the Climate concludes that reducing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators can have climate benefits equivalent to removing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. Press Release - Exec Summ. - Full Report
Balancing Budgets By Raising Depletion Taxes
This June 2008 policy brief by Justin Dahlheimer concludes that states could generate hundreds of millions, in some cases billions, of dollars in additional revenue each year by implementing or adjusting depletion tax policies. The report illustrates how current depletion tax policies, in many cases, fail to account for the full value of the natural resources, depriving state and local governments of additional revenue that could be useful in current and future fiscal years. View the Press Release and Download the full report
Concentrating Solar and Decentralized Power: Government Incentives Hinder Local Ownership
Can residential rooftop solar compete with new utility-scale concentrating solar electric plants? Only if federal and state incentives are amended to level the playing field. This May 2008 report by John Farrell explores the economics of solar PV and concentrating solar and shows how local ownership is hindered unless government solar incentives change. View the Press Release and Download the revised edition of the full report
Driving Our Way to Energy Independence
by David Morris
March 2008
View Executive Summary and Download the full report
This report describes how commercially available technologies today could transform our petroleum powered transportation system into one powered by electricity and biofuels. Provisions in the recently passed Energy Act could accelerate that transformation. With the adoption of complementary policies, the revolution in our transportation sector can generate an equally profound revolution in our electricity sector. Hundreds of thousands of locally owned wind turbines and solar electric arrays supplying flexible fueled, plug-in hybrid vehicles can allow tens of millions of Americans to become energy producers not just energy consumers.
Carbon Caps With Universal Dividends: Equitable, Ethical & Politically Effective Climate Policy
by John Bailey
January 2008
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This policy brief concludes that universal dividends are a critically important tool to create the political will and public acceptance for a carbon cap. Universal dividends have the potential to hold harmless a large segment of consumers while we move to a low-carbon economy. Moreover, the universal dividend honors the principle that the sky belongs to all of us equally. Private investment in clean and efficient technologies will be driven by a carbon cap that leads to steady reductions over time of GHG emissions and carbon-based fuels.
Municipal Broadband: Demystifying Wireless and Fiber-Optic Options
by Christopher Mitchell
January 2008
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This policy brief examines how the United States, creator of the Internet, increasingly lags in high-speed access to it. In the absence of a national broadband strategy, hundreds of communities have invested in broadband infrastructure to solve their problem locally. This report highlights how communities are continuing to invest in broadband networks - both wired and wireless - and digs deeper into these technologies and the tradeoffs of each. The solution: wireless solves the mobility problem; fiber solves the speed and capacity problems; and public ownership offers a network built to benefit the community.
If you are interested in ordering publications that are not online please print, fill out, and mail the publications order form along with your check to our DC office:
Phone: 202-898-1610 ext. 200 if you have questions
Community Broadband Networks Are Faster and Cheaper for Consumers
Community Solar Power: Obstacles and Opportunities