Our work on the Washington state energy strategy led to a new project in November 2020, Oregon Clean Energy Pathways Analysis. In partnership with Renewable Northwest, GridLab, and Evolved Energy Research, we are using the updated NWDDP model to test various decarbonization scenarios for Oregon to inform policy discussions during the upcoming 2021 legislative session.

From January through July 2021, The Clean Energy Transition Institute analyzed Washington state’s industrial emissions to help the Department of Commerce improve its data collection to develop Washington-specific decarbonization roadmaps. Our work entailed breaking down the upstream, process, and downstream phases for the state’s top nine emitting industries, identifying the dominant emission sources and data collection for each stage, and suggesting other data-collection methods. We also drafted a case study on green cement.

From March 2020 through January 2021, the Clean Energy Transition Institute provided technical and economic analysis to support the Washington State Department of Commerce in developing the 2021 State Energy Strategy. The strategy is a 10-year roadmap for how the state could get on the path to achieving the State’s 2050 net-zero target. With a team of 12, we modeled decarbonization pathways; interviewed 150 stakeholders; surveyed over 700 studies; created a compendium of all state climate and clean energy policies; and designed and produced the strategy and accompanying infographics.

In December 2019, the Institute and Evolved Energy Research presented deep decarbonization pathways modeling results to Montana Governor Steve Bullock’s Climate Solutions Council, which was charged with developing strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prepare the state for climate impacts, foster innovation, and create economic development and workforce strategies for communities in transition.

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest is the first economy-wide analysis to examine decarbonization pathways mapped to the Northwest’s economic and institutional realities.