By Kate Ellis, senior policy associate, Fresh Energy

An analysis recently released by McKinsey and Company called “The U.S. Low Carbon Economics Tool” provides in-depth macroeconomic modeling of different scenarios of possible energy and climate policies. With the recent release of the American Power Act, an analysis of this type is invaluable for better understanding the implications of different policy measures as well as the economic impact of inaction. With this tool we can better understand the changes to jobs, gross domestic product (GDP), energy prices, taxes, energy demand, and industry cost structure in relation to different policies.

Some of the interesting findings of the report…

If we enact energy efficiency policies it will result in significant savings for consumers on their household electricity bills. Additionally, significant investment in efficiency will cause an overall positive gain in national GDP over the next 20 years. They also found, not surprisingly, that there are large gains to be made in the transportation sector. One last interesting finding from their modeling showed that instead of our electrical demand steadily growing over the next 20 years, with efficiency, carbon, and clean energy policies we can nearly hold the demand for electricity constant, while increasing our demand for renewables and decreasing demand for fossil fuels. This can be done, according to the modeling, while having a neutral or positive effect on nearly every states’ economy. Take a look at the full report for more findings and information.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 11:07 am by Fresh Energy and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.