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The Institute Wins an Exciting Award

We are pleased to announce that the Washington State Department of Commerce chose us to provide technical expertise to help develop the 2021 Washington State Energy Strategy.

Eileen V. Quigley

Wrapping Up 2019 with Gratitude

After a very busy year, the Clean Energy Transition Institute has become an important catalyst for framing informed discussions about deep decarbonization in the Northwest. We are respected for providing unbiased research, daylighting the nuances of the clean energy...

Eileen V. Quigley

Montana Governor's Climate Solutions Council Presentation

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to Montana Governor Steve Bullock's Climate Solutions Council on December 10, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

What You Can Do About Climate Change

With glaciers melting, seas rising, wildfires raging, and storms intensifying, Americans have awakened to the reality of climate change. The majority now understands that global warming is happening; is caused by humans burning fossil fuels; and is causing the climate to change. People are asking how they can do their part to reduce their carbon footprints.

Eileen V. Quigley

Cash for Carbon

In the event that Democrats win back the Senate in 2020, current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would introduce a proposal to speed up the transition to electric vehicles that would eliminate carbon emissions from approximately 65 million gas-powered cars.

Washington State Key Stakeholders Briefing

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to key business, utility, nonprofit advocates, and policymakers on October 24, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

Briefing for Washington Governor Jay Inslee's Staff and Agencies

A briefing on October 24, 2019 of the study's Washington State-only results of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study for Governor Jay Inslee's climate and clean energy policy and agency staff.

Eileen V. Quigley

Community Solar in the Northwest

Cheaper, cleaner, quiet energy. It’s an easy sell. That’s why community solar farms have been sprouting up across the nation. Forty states have at least one community solar project, and 1,523 megawatts (MW) of this type of solar were installed in 2018.

Shifting to Zero

As concern about the climate crisis grows, people are searching for solutions to decrease their carbon footprints. Net-zero homes are one way to help achieve deep decarbonization.

Moving Forward with Decarbonizing the Northwest

In the wake of the successful release of Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest, the Clean Energy Transition Institute had an exceptionally busy summer fielding inquiries and making presentations...

Eileen V. Quigley

Striking for the Future

“Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go!” Chants rang though the streets of Seattle last Friday from thousands who participated in the Seattle Climate Strike. Students and workers skipped school and work to demand stronger climate action...

Maybe an Electric Car Isn't for You After All... Or is it?

As more and more Electric Vehicles (EVs) come to market, it is becoming easier to find an EV model to match a wide range of lifestyles. It’s time to bust common myths about EVs.

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Buildings

Shifting to Zero

As concern about the climate crisis grows, people are searching for solutions to decrease their carbon footprints. Net-zero homes are one way to help achieve deep decarbonization.

Build It and They Will See

Presentation that looks at the various advantages that the Cascadia region has in terms of electricity, transportation, and green building to achieve the low-carbon pathways, delivered for Portland State University on February 19, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

Getting Serious about Reducing Carbon Emissions

Wasting no time in 2015, local elected officials from 12 King County cities, led by King County Executive Dow Constantine, got down to brass tacks the first work week of January to determine how to achieve ambitious countywide carbon reduction goals.

Eileen V. Quigley

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Clean Electricity

Community Solar in the Northwest

Cheaper, cleaner, quiet energy. It’s an easy sell. That’s why community solar farms have been sprouting up across the nation. Forty states have at least one community solar project, and 1,523 megawatts (MW) of this type of solar were installed in 2018.

Funding Workforce Development for Retiring Coal Plants

Hundreds of coal plants across the country have closed, with more shutdowns in the last two years than the previous decade. The reason is clear: coal is now more expensive than renewables, such as wind and solar.

Decarbonizing Northwest Energy Systems

Clean Energy Transition Institute Board member Ross Macfarlane and Executive Director Eileen V. Quigley co-teach a course during Winter Quarter at Western Washington University’s Institute for Energy Studies, called Northwest Energy Systems and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Low-Carbon Pathways: Electricity

Presentation that explores the low-carbon pathways for the electricity sector, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on January 23, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

Why Electrify Everything?

A basic decarbonization tenet is to clean the grid, electrify whatever processes can be electrified, and leave as small as possible a remaining carbon budget for the sectors that are harder to decarbonize, such as aviation.

Eileen V. Quigley

Cities' Path to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy

Although President Trump has committed to pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, many of our cities are still moving full steam ahead to clear the air and fight climate change. More than 200 U.S. municipalities have declared ...

All the King's Horses-Why Coal Isn't Coming Back

During his campaign, Donald Trump promised struggling coal mining communities that he would bring back all the jobs that have been disappearing over the past decades. Outlining his energy agenda last May, Trump told coal miners to...

Ross Macfarlane

Here Comes the Sun

A clean electricity grid is a climate twofer: not only does a completely renewable power supply make it easier to decrease building sector and industry carbon emissions, it also paves the road for removing carbon pollution from the transport sector..

Eileen V. Quigley

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Clean Energy Policy

Cash for Carbon

In the event that Democrats win back the Senate in 2020, current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would introduce a proposal to speed up the transition to electric vehicles that would eliminate carbon emissions from approximately 65 million gas-powered cars.

Jay Inslee Set the Standard for Presidential Candidate Climate Action

As someone who spends her waking hours working to accelerate the clean energy transition, I disagree strongly with critics who suggest that Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s aborted presidential campaign was a flop.

Eileen V. Quigley

Cities Creating Strategies for Emission Reduction

Once a community’s overall sources and uses of energy are established, citizens and government officials must determine how to focus their emission-reduction efforts. To do so, they can use a carbon wedge analysis...

Eileen V. Quigley

Seattle Ups Ante on Climate Action

Newly elected Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan wasted no time making clear her commitment to serious climate action, announcing new carbon emission-reduction initiatives for transportation and buildings on April 4, 2018...

Eileen V. Quigley

Empower Cities to Take Bold Action

Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my observations about how local government can accelerate clean energy in Washington State. My name is Eileen Quigley and I direct Clean Energy Transition, a Seattle, WA-based organization that ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Promises that Can’t be Kept: Trump and Coal

President Donald Trump kicked off a campaign rally in the coal-dependent state of West Virginia on August 3, with this assertion that he is reviving the moribund coal industry and putting miners back to work. How does this claim hold up?

Ross Macfarlane

Stepping Up on Urban Clean Energy

With cities accounting for 70% of global carbon emissions, and half the world and 80 percent of Americans living in urban environments, cities should play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Eileen V. Quigley

Here Comes the Sun

A clean electricity grid is a climate twofer: not only does a completely renewable power supply make it easier to decrease building sector and industry carbon emissions, it also paves the road for removing carbon pollution from the transport sector..

Eileen V. Quigley

Getting the Job Done

What a difference five years has made! In 2010, the outlook for significant climate action was bleak, with the dismal Copenhagen Climate Summit that failed to produce an agreement on legally binding carbon emission reduction commitments, and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

This is What Climate Leadership Looks Like

With Congress unwilling to take concerted action on climate change, it's worth celebrating that county and city leaders in the Northwest are up to the task of climate leadership at the regional scale.

Eileen V. Quigley

California: Gold Standard for Climate and Clean Energy

In the absence of national climate and energy policy, US local and regional leaders are developing the climate and clean energy policies, strategies, and projects required to reduce carbon emissions and the state of California is the gold standard...

Eileen V. Quigley

On the Cutting Edge with Oregon Communities

The New Energy Cities joined close to 200 Oregon mayors and city managers in Bend, OR on January 22 at the Oregon Governor’s Cutting Edge Communities Symposium. A terrific kick-off for a promising initiative!

Eileen V. Quigley

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Clean Energy Workforce

Clean Energy Driving Job Growth

These are dynamic times for the clean energy job sector, despite the Trump Administration’s best efforts to stymie clean energy in the United States by propping up the coal industry, derailing clean cars, and halting clean power.

Eileen V. Quigley

Counting Clean Energy Jobs

Clean energy is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy, with millions of jobs being created at the same time that traditional energy sectors, such as coal mining, face sharp declines. Tracking the progress in clean energy job ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Clean Energy Workforce

Presentation that looks at clean energy job growth, utility worker retirement, transitioning fossil fuel workers, and economic opportunity for low- and middle-income workers, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course.

The Great Coal Cleanup is Everybody's Business (with Opportunity for All)

Roughly one year ago, I wrote an article for GreenBiz in which I argued for greater corporate sector engagement on the pressing economic challenges in coal mining communities. In particular, I argued for a more inclusive form of ...

Why Coal Country Must be Part of the Clean Economy

One of the most remarkable developments in recent years has been the relatively drama-free embrace in many corners of the private sector of the concept of environmental externalities. Arguments over the indirect costs of fossil fuel combustion ...

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Climate Action

Wrapping Up 2019 with Gratitude

After a very busy year, the Clean Energy Transition Institute has become an important catalyst for framing informed discussions about deep decarbonization in the Northwest. We are respected for providing unbiased research, daylighting the nuances of the clean energy...

Eileen V. Quigley

What You Can Do About Climate Change

With glaciers melting, seas rising, wildfires raging, and storms intensifying, Americans have awakened to the reality of climate change. The majority now understands that global warming is happening; is caused by humans burning fossil fuels; and is causing the climate to change. People are asking how they can do their part to reduce their carbon footprints.

Eileen V. Quigley

Striking for the Future

“Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go!” Chants rang though the streets of Seattle last Friday from thousands who participated in the Seattle Climate Strike. Students and workers skipped school and work to demand stronger climate action...

Jay Inslee Set the Standard for Presidential Candidate Climate Action

As someone who spends her waking hours working to accelerate the clean energy transition, I disagree strongly with critics who suggest that Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s aborted presidential campaign was a flop.

Eileen V. Quigley

Hiking Footprints vs. Carbon Footprint

Our family has hiked together since our 12-year-old daughter was a newborn. I remember our daughter’s first decade as a series of literal peaks and valleys, many of them in the Olympics. I can picture her chasing butterflies over Marmot Pass ...

Efforts to Address Carbon Emissions

The scientific community has understood that burning fossil fuels could cause global temperatures to rise for nearly two centuries, but it wasn't until the 1990s that efforts were made to address this phenomenon ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Chronicling Global Warming Milestones

Despite ongoing efforts of climate-denial proponents to present global warming science as new and unsettled, we have known for two centuries that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have the potential to severely disrupt the earth’s ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Tracking Climate Action at the City Level

While climate change presents a global imperative, cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and contribute over 70% of the greenhouse gas pollution, climate action at the local level is critically important. Further, the urban share of...

Eileen V. Quigley

100% Renewable Movement

Presentation that explores the concept of and controversy about the 100% Renewable or 100% Clean Movement and how cities and businesses are embracing it, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 27, 2018.

Public Opinion and Climate Advocacy

Presentation that reviews public opinion polls about climate change; climate denial efforts; media coverage of climate change; the impact of weather events; and various clean energy advocacy and movement-building efforts, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 22, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

Decarbonization in Action

Presentation that looks at decarbonization efforts in Germany, the European Union, China, and the United States, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 8, 2018.

Occupy the Future

Climate Week draws to a close, a resounding success in focusing the world’s attention on the importance of addressing climate change. The UN Climate Summit 2014 was the catalyst for the week's events. It remains to be seen what will happen ...

Eileen V. Quigley

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Emerging Technologies

The Role of Emerging Technologies

A variety of new and emerging technologies will be required to meet electricity demand in the 2040-2050 timeframe. Below is a brief discussion of those that the Northwest deep decarbonization pathways study identified.

Eileen V. Quigley

Out of Thin Air: BC Start-Up Aims to Produce Jet and Other Fuels from Atmospheric Carbon, Water, and Renewable Energy.

BC Start-Up Aims to Produce Jet and Other Fuels from Atmospheric Carbon, Water, and Renewable Energy.

Ross Macfarlane

Shaping the Future of Autonomous Vehicles

In the coming decades, autonomous vehicles (AVs) will likely cause unprecedented disruption to the passenger vehicle market. Under optimistic projections, AVs are anticipated to reach a 50 percent market share by 2040 and 90 percent share by 2050 ...

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Energy Efficiency

Eight Decarbonization Scenarios

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest explores multiple pathways for decarbonizing the region’s energy system, while addressing policy questions and potential implementation challenges in ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Five Deep Decarbonization Strategies

The deep decarbonization framework for the Northwest deep decarbonization pathways study, Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest centers around five decarbonization strategies ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Use Less. Use Clean. Switch Fuels. Applying the Decarbonization Framework for Cities

Why should cities embrace a climate and clean energy agenda? Cities use 70% of global energy and therefore have a huge opportunity and responsibility to reduce their energy use and their greenhouse gas emissions. Half of the global population and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Portland Advances Residential Energy Efficiency

Portland, OR Mayor Charlie Hales released a draft Home Energy Score policy on September 7 that would require sellers of all single-family homes within the city limits to obtain a home energy performance report and disclose the results when listing...

Eileen V. Quigley

Breaking Barriers to Deep Energy Efficiency

Eileen edited this briefing paper authored by Elizabeth Willmott and published by Climate Solutions, which offers lessons learned from both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Washington State investments in single family residential retrofits since 2009 to inform a regional retrofit strategy for King County, WA.

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Fuels Decarbonization

Maybe an Electric Car Isn't for You After All... Or is it?

As more and more Electric Vehicles (EVs) come to market, it is becoming easier to find an EV model to match a wide range of lifestyles. It’s time to bust common myths about EVs.

Ensuring an Equitable Electric Vehicle Future

A common misconception is that Teslas are the only electric vehicles (EVs) available. This leads to the perception that EVs are only accessible to the rich and should not be considered as a decarbonizing transportation solution...

Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandates Accelerate EVs

ZEV mandates are a technology-forcing policy, encouraging automakers to produce cars with longer ranges, as vehicles sold with longer electric ranges earn more credits toward satisfying the mandate...

How Expensive is an Electric Vehicle?

Upfront costs present a significant barrier to widespread Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption. EVs cost more than a comparably sized gas-powered car, although the cost of EVs has declined and is expected to continue to drop...

Incentivizing Electric Vehicle Adoption

Policy incentives encouraging people to drive electric vehicles (EVs) are increasing as policymakers tackle the challenge of reducing transportation emissions to address growing concerns about climate change.

Dealing with Range Anxiety

Although an electric vehicle’s (EV) speed, quiet ride, and smooth handling make it highly enjoyable to drive, many potential drivers may avoid EVs because of concerns about EV battery capacity, ready availability of public charging stations...

A Beginner’s Guide to Alternative Fuel Vehicles

As the climate crisis grows, transportation sector emissions must be addressed. The transport sector in Washington and Oregon accounts for nearly half of all energy-related CO2 emissions.

Out of Thin Air: BC Start-Up Aims to Produce Jet and Other Fuels from Atmospheric Carbon, Water, and Renewable Energy.

BC Start-Up Aims to Produce Jet and Other Fuels from Atmospheric Carbon, Water, and Renewable Energy.

Ross Macfarlane

Low-Carbon Pathways: Transportation

Presentation that explores the low-carbon pathways for the transportation sector, with emphasis on electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on January 30, 2018.

Are We There Yet?

This summer, I participated in an event sponsored by the Port of Seattle unveiling a new report that addresses how to make sustainable aviation fuels economically competitive.

Ross Macfarlane

Future of Sustainable Aviation Biofuels

Presentation given by Ross Macfarlane at a Port of Seattle event on July 19, 2017, outlining the current state of sustainable aviation fuels.

Ross Macfarlane

Repowering Mobility: Envisioning a New Future for Transportation

Keynote presentation given at Western Washington University’s Repowering Mobility conference on April 18, 2017, exploring the various challenges and opportunities for decarbonizing aviation, freight, marine, and passenger vehicles.

Eileen V. Quigley

Transportation Decarbonization References

A list of studies, reports, books, and articles related to decarbonizing the freight, marine, aviation, and passenger vehicle sectors, current as of April 2017.

Eileen V. Quigley

Toward Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Eileen edited this report (authored by Seth Zuckerman, published by Climate Solutions) exploring progress toward reducing global carbon pollution from commercial aviation 50 percent by 2050, which accounts for 2 percent of global carbon pollution and is forecast to grow to between 3 and 4.7 percent by 2050 without concerted action to curb emissions.

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Low-Carbon Pathways

Wrapping Up 2019 with Gratitude

After a very busy year, the Clean Energy Transition Institute has become an important catalyst for framing informed discussions about deep decarbonization in the Northwest. We are respected for providing unbiased research, daylighting the nuances of the clean energy...

Eileen V. Quigley

Montana Governor's Climate Solutions Council Presentation

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to Montana Governor Steve Bullock's Climate Solutions Council on December 10, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

Washington State Key Stakeholders Briefing

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to key business, utility, nonprofit advocates, and policymakers on October 24, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

Briefing for Washington Governor Jay Inslee's Staff and Agencies

A briefing on October 24, 2019 of the study's Washington State-only results of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study for Governor Jay Inslee's climate and clean energy policy and agency staff.

Eileen V. Quigley

Moving Forward with Decarbonizing the Northwest

In the wake of the successful release of Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest, the Clean Energy Transition Institute had an exceptionally busy summer fielding inquiries and making presentations...

Eileen V. Quigley

Implementing Deep Decarbonization in the Northwest

"Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest" aims to represent potential energy futures in enough technical detail to be used as blueprints to develop a future of the Northwest’s choosing.

Eileen V. Quigley

Deep Decarbonization is Achievable in Northwest

The Clean Energy Transition Institute released Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest on June 5, 2019. This study is the first economy-wide analysis to examine decarbonization pathways...

Eileen V. Quigley

Northwest Power Planning Council Briefing

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to the Northwest Power Planning Council on August 13, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

Pathways to a Clean Energy Future

The Clean Energy Transition Institute commissioned an economy-wide deep decarbonization pathways study to serve as a blueprint for how Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington might achieve a low-carbon, clean energy economy...

Eileen V. Quigley

Deep Decarbonization Study Conclusions

The results of Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest demonstrate the feasibility of Northwest states to achieve deep decarbonization by mid-century, even if we postulate...

Eileen V. Quigley

Deep Decarbonization Cost Assessment

The scope of costs in "Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future in the Northwest" is limited to energy system costs, which represent the annual cost of producing, distributing, and consuming energy.

Eileen V. Quigley

The Role of Emerging Technologies

A variety of new and emerging technologies will be required to meet electricity demand in the 2040-2050 timeframe. Below is a brief discussion of those that the Northwest deep decarbonization pathways study identified.

Eileen V. Quigley

Eight Decarbonization Scenarios

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest explores multiple pathways for decarbonizing the region’s energy system, while addressing policy questions and potential implementation challenges in ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Five Deep Decarbonization Strategies

The deep decarbonization framework for the Northwest deep decarbonization pathways study, Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest centers around five decarbonization strategies ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Pathways Study Methodology and Emissions Target

Prior to commissioning Meeting the Challenge of Our Time, the Clean Energy Transition Institute convened a Deep Decarbonization Pathways Working Group and conducted numerous interviews with Northwest stakeholders ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time

Today, the Clean Energy Transition Institute released Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest, the first economy-wide analysis to examine decarbonization pathways mapped to the Northwest’s economic...

Eileen V. Quigley

Funding Workforce Development for Retiring Coal Plants

Hundreds of coal plants across the country have closed, with more shutdowns in the last two years than the previous decade. The reason is clear: coal is now more expensive than renewables, such as wind and solar.

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest

The first economy-wide analysis to examine decarbonization pathways mapped to the Northwest’s economic and institutional realities. The Clean Energy Transition Institute commissioned this study to understand how Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington could technically and economically achieve a low-carbon economy over the next three decades.

Use Less. Use Clean. Switch Fuels. Applying the Decarbonization Framework for Cities

Why should cities embrace a climate and clean energy agenda? Cities use 70% of global energy and therefore have a huge opportunity and responsibility to reduce their energy use and their greenhouse gas emissions. Half of the global population and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways Study

Case Statement for a deep decarbonization pathways study that would offer guidance to Washington and Oregon policymakers, advocates, and investors for developing climate policy by addressing the question: How does the Northwest decarbonize the built environment, transport sector, and electricity grid between now and 2050 and at what cost?

Eileen V. Quigley

Deep Decarbonization Pathways Studies Analysis

Summary and analysis of decarbonization pathways studies to inform Northwest policymakers, funders, legislators, local government officials, and climate advocates about how to advance a low-carbon/decarbonization pathways study for the region, particularly for Washington and Oregon.

Decarbonization Reading List

Reading list that Clean Energy Transition Institute Board member Ross Macfarlane and Executive Director Eileen V. Quigley developed for a course they co-taught during the Winter Quarter 2018 at Western Washington University’s Institute for Energy Studies. Readings and citations were current as of March 31, 2018.

Decarbonizing Northwest Energy Systems

Clean Energy Transition Institute Board member Ross Macfarlane and Executive Director Eileen V. Quigley co-teach a course during Winter Quarter at Western Washington University’s Institute for Energy Studies, called Northwest Energy Systems and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Low-Carbon Pathways for the Northwest

Presentation that explores the low-carbon pathways for the Northwest in the context of existing deep decarbonization pathways studies, both for the United States and for Washington and Oregon, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on March 15, 2018.

Low-Carbon Pathways

The low-carbon pathways can be summarized into four broad actions ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Low-Carbon Pathways Overview

Presentation that offers an overview of the low-carbon pathways to economy-wide deep decarbonization, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on January 11, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

Achieving a Low-Carbon Future

Major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions require comprehensive changes not just in how we source energy, and manage forests and agricultural systems, but also in how we live and move in urban areas, where most of the world’s energy, materials ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Key Decarbonization References

Non-exhaustive, but curated list of studies, reports, books, and articles that are valuable to read to gain understanding of how deep decarbonization can be achieved, current as of July 2017.

Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution

Welcome to Clean Energy Transition, an initiative that promotes strategies to accelerate the transition from fossil fuel to clean energy, focusing on low-carbon pathways, urban clean energy, and clean energy economics.

Eileen V. Quigley

All the King's Horses-Why Coal Isn't Coming Back

During his campaign, Donald Trump promised struggling coal mining communities that he would bring back all the jobs that have been disappearing over the past decades. Outlining his energy agenda last May, Trump told coal miners to...

Ross Macfarlane

Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition

Presentation exploring climate change; climate change denial; the climate movement; clean energy economics; and the ways to get off of coal and oil and invest in clean energy given at the Port Townsend Salon, a community lecture series featuring experts in science and culture.

Eileen V. Quigley

Pathways to a Low-Carbon Future

Presentation to a graduate seminar on eco-capitalism at the University of Washington describing the pathways to clean energy with a focus on national, state, and city actions.

Eileen V. Quigley

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Sequestration

Capture Carbon, Save Money, Enhance Communities

On August 1, 2013, the City of Portland graciously hosted the Northwest Biocarbon Initiative (NBI) along with our partners at Ecotrust and the Willamette Partnership to announce the release of NBI’s new report, Natural Infrastructure ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Natural Infrastructure: A Climate-Smart Solution

This report, co-written with Rhys Roth and published by Climate Solutions, examines the role that natural infrastructure plays in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, removing carbon pollution, and building resilience to impacts of climate change.

Eileen V. Quigley

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Transportation Electrification

Maybe an Electric Car Isn't for You After All... Or is it?

As more and more Electric Vehicles (EVs) come to market, it is becoming easier to find an EV model to match a wide range of lifestyles. It’s time to bust common myths about EVs.

Ensuring an Equitable Electric Vehicle Future

A common misconception is that Teslas are the only electric vehicles (EVs) available. This leads to the perception that EVs are only accessible to the rich and should not be considered as a decarbonizing transportation solution...

Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandates Accelerate EVs

ZEV mandates are a technology-forcing policy, encouraging automakers to produce cars with longer ranges, as vehicles sold with longer electric ranges earn more credits toward satisfying the mandate...

How Expensive is an Electric Vehicle?

Upfront costs present a significant barrier to widespread Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption. EVs cost more than a comparably sized gas-powered car, although the cost of EVs has declined and is expected to continue to drop...

Incentivizing Electric Vehicle Adoption

Policy incentives encouraging people to drive electric vehicles (EVs) are increasing as policymakers tackle the challenge of reducing transportation emissions to address growing concerns about climate change.

Dealing with Range Anxiety

Although an electric vehicle’s (EV) speed, quiet ride, and smooth handling make it highly enjoyable to drive, many potential drivers may avoid EVs because of concerns about EV battery capacity, ready availability of public charging stations...

A Beginner’s Guide to Alternative Fuel Vehicles

As the climate crisis grows, transportation sector emissions must be addressed. The transport sector in Washington and Oregon accounts for nearly half of all energy-related CO2 emissions.

Hiking Footprints vs. Carbon Footprint

Our family has hiked together since our 12-year-old daughter was a newborn. I remember our daughter’s first decade as a series of literal peaks and valleys, many of them in the Olympics. I can picture her chasing butterflies over Marmot Pass ...

Why Electrify Everything?

A basic decarbonization tenet is to clean the grid, electrify whatever processes can be electrified, and leave as small as possible a remaining carbon budget for the sectors that are harder to decarbonize, such as aviation.

Eileen V. Quigley

Shaping the Future of Autonomous Vehicles

In the coming decades, autonomous vehicles (AVs) will likely cause unprecedented disruption to the passenger vehicle market. Under optimistic projections, AVs are anticipated to reach a 50 percent market share by 2040 and 90 percent share by 2050 ...

Repowering Mobility: Envisioning a New Future for Transportation

Keynote presentation given at Western Washington University’s Repowering Mobility conference on April 18, 2017, exploring the various challenges and opportunities for decarbonizing aviation, freight, marine, and passenger vehicles.

Eileen V. Quigley

Why Electric Vehicles are a Climate Solution

Eileen edited this report authored by Seth Zuckerman and published by Climate Solutions examining the impact that electric vehicles could have on addressing climate change, as well has how the grid can provide the electricity required to power mass adoption of electrification.

Eileen V. Quigley

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Urban Decarbonization

Cities Adopting Best Practices and Lessons Learned at the Local Level

Now that we understand the decarbonization framework, have a sense of how cities understand their energy sources and uses, and break down carbon reduction targets and strategies, let's review best practices and lessons learned for urban carbon ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Cities Creating Strategies for Emission Reduction

Once a community’s overall sources and uses of energy are established, citizens and government officials must determine how to focus their emission-reduction efforts. To do so, they can use a carbon wedge analysis...

Eileen V. Quigley

Understanding Sources and Uses of Energy in Urban Areas

Setting priorities for climate action at the local level requires understanding where the biggest sources of emissions are and where you can get the biggest bang for your buck. As a foundation, you need to understand the sources and uses of energy...

Eileen V. Quigley

Tracking Climate Action at the City Level

While climate change presents a global imperative, cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and contribute over 70% of the greenhouse gas pollution, climate action at the local level is critically important. Further, the urban share of...

Eileen V. Quigley

Urban Clean Energy Efforts

Guest lecture presented to the Rainier Club’s public affairs committee that discussed what cities can do to reduce carbon emissions and discussed the City of Seattle’s recently updated climate action plan.

Eileen V. Quigley

Seattle Ups Ante on Climate Action

Newly elected Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan wasted no time making clear her commitment to serious climate action, announcing new carbon emission-reduction initiatives for transportation and buildings on April 4, 2018...

Eileen V. Quigley

City-Led Clean Energy Innovation (San Luis Obispo)

Webinar conducted on February 21, 2018 for San Luis Obispo, CA that looked at best practices in urban clean energy and lessons learned from nearly a decade of helping small and mid-sized cities develop strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

Eileen V. Quigley

City-Led Climate Action

Presentation that provides a chronology of city climate action in the United States and internationally and describes the best high-level roles and policies for cities to decarbonize, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 15, 2018.

City Climate Solutions References

A curated list of studies, reports, and articles related to decarbonizing cities, current as of January 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

Carving Up Carbon Reduction Strategies

A community that has set an ambitious carbon-reduction target and mapped its sources and uses of energy is ready to determine how to carve up its reduction strategies using a Carbon Wedge Analysis ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Mapping a City's Energy Sources and Uses

So how does a city that has set an ambitious but achievable carbon emissions reduction goal go about actually achieving that target? They calculate their carbon footprint and determine how many emissions they have to reduce and then set targets to ..

Eileen V. Quigley

Cities Take Aim at Carbon Reduction

Working with nearly 30 Northwest communities from 2009-2017 offered the opportunity to learn many lessons about how cities can accelerate adoption of climate-smart, clean energy solutions, none more instructive than the need to set a clear ...

Eileen V. Quigley

City-Led Clean Energy Innovation — Energy Mapping & Carbon Wedge Analyses

Energy maps and carbon wedge analyses for eight cities in Washington and Oregon created by Climate Solutions’ New Energy Cities team and Clean Energy Transition from 2012-2017. Current as of October 2017.

Cities' Path to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy

Although President Trump has committed to pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, many of our cities are still moving full steam ahead to clear the air and fight climate change. More than 200 U.S. municipalities have declared ...

How Cities Create Climate Action Plans

Over the past decade, cities and counties have become increasingly knowledgeable about developing meaningful CAPs and best practices from first-generation CAPs that the nation’s largest and best-funded cities created.

Eileen V. Quigley

City of Olympia Energy Map and Carbon Wedge Analysis

Presentation to the City of Olympia, Washington staff on the community's energy sources and uses, as well as a depiction in a wedge analysis of where the city could invest in strategies to reduce carbon emissions to achieve a target of 50 percent fewer emissions from 2014 levels by 2030.

Eileen V. Quigley

Stepping Up on Urban Clean Energy

With cities accounting for 70% of global carbon emissions, and half the world and 80 percent of Americans living in urban environments, cities should play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Eileen V. Quigley

City of Everett Energy Map and Carbon Wedge Analysis

Presentation to the Everett, Washington City Council on the community's energy sources and uses, as well as a depiction in a wedge analysis of where the city could invest in strategies to reduce carbon emissions to achieve a target of 50 percent fewer emissions from 2014 levels by 2030.

Eileen V. Quigley

Portland Advances Residential Energy Efficiency

Portland, OR Mayor Charlie Hales released a draft Home Energy Score policy on September 7 that would require sellers of all single-family homes within the city limits to obtain a home energy performance report and disclose the results when listing...

Eileen V. Quigley

King County-Cities Climate Collaboration

Established in 2011, the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) is a voluntary but formal partnership of King County and 13 cities forged with the idea that neighboring local governments can achieve deeper results on climate solutions by...

Eileen V. Quigley

Urban Clean Energy Revolution

Eileen edited this report authored by Elizabeth Willmott and published by Climate Solutions, which examined the critical ingredients for successful city-led climate action and carbon pollution reduction. (November 2015)

Eileen V. Quigley

Getting the Job Done

What a difference five years has made! In 2010, the outlook for significant climate action was bleak, with the dismal Copenhagen Climate Summit that failed to produce an agreement on legally binding carbon emission reduction commitments, and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Revolution Required: Meeting Current and Future Energy Challenges

Eileen delivered this paper and presentation at the Kühne Logistics Universität in Hamburg, Germany for the City of Tomorrow Series on May 7, 2015.

Eileen V. Quigley

Getting Serious about Reducing Carbon Emissions

Wasting no time in 2015, local elected officials from 12 King County cities, led by King County Executive Dow Constantine, got down to brass tacks the first work week of January to determine how to achieve ambitious countywide carbon reduction goals.

Eileen V. Quigley

This is What Climate Leadership Looks Like

With Congress unwilling to take concerted action on climate change, it's worth celebrating that county and city leaders in the Northwest are up to the task of climate leadership at the regional scale.

Eileen V. Quigley

On the Cutting Edge with Oregon Communities

The New Energy Cities joined close to 200 Oregon mayors and city managers in Bend, OR on January 22 at the Oregon Governor’s Cutting Edge Communities Symposium. A terrific kick-off for a promising initiative!

Eileen V. Quigley

Powering the New Energy Future from the Ground Up

A report co-written with Elizabeth Willmott and published by Climate Solutions on how 34 American cities with fewer than 250,000 residents reduced their dependence upon fossil fuels for energy and catalyzed local clean energy with federal stimulus funds.

Eileen V. Quigley

Energizing Cities: New Models for Driving Clean Energy Investment

A guide for local elected officials, county and city staff, energy utility managers, and community stakeholders to the steps needed in designing and financing clean energy programs edited by Eileen. A joint project with Climate Solutions' New Energy Cities program, Pareto Global, the University of Oregon Center for Sustainable Business, and ...

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Blog Posts

The Institute Wins an Exciting Award

We are pleased to announce that the Washington State Department of Commerce chose us to provide technical expertise to help develop the 2021 Washington State Energy Strategy.

Eileen V. Quigley

Wrapping Up 2019 with Gratitude

After a very busy year, the Clean Energy Transition Institute has become an important catalyst for framing informed discussions about deep decarbonization in the Northwest. We are respected for providing unbiased research, daylighting the nuances of the clean energy...

Eileen V. Quigley

What You Can Do About Climate Change

With glaciers melting, seas rising, wildfires raging, and storms intensifying, Americans have awakened to the reality of climate change. The majority now understands that global warming is happening; is caused by humans burning fossil fuels; and is causing the climate to change. People are asking how they can do their part to reduce their carbon footprints.

Eileen V. Quigley

Cash for Carbon

In the event that Democrats win back the Senate in 2020, current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would introduce a proposal to speed up the transition to electric vehicles that would eliminate carbon emissions from approximately 65 million gas-powered cars.

Community Solar in the Northwest

Cheaper, cleaner, quiet energy. It’s an easy sell. That’s why community solar farms have been sprouting up across the nation. Forty states have at least one community solar project, and 1,523 megawatts (MW) of this type of solar were installed in 2018.

Shifting to Zero

As concern about the climate crisis grows, people are searching for solutions to decrease their carbon footprints. Net-zero homes are one way to help achieve deep decarbonization.

Moving Forward with Decarbonizing the Northwest

In the wake of the successful release of Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest, the Clean Energy Transition Institute had an exceptionally busy summer fielding inquiries and making presentations...

Eileen V. Quigley

Striking for the Future

“Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go!” Chants rang though the streets of Seattle last Friday from thousands who participated in the Seattle Climate Strike. Students and workers skipped school and work to demand stronger climate action...

Maybe an Electric Car Isn't for You After All... Or is it?

As more and more Electric Vehicles (EVs) come to market, it is becoming easier to find an EV model to match a wide range of lifestyles. It’s time to bust common myths about EVs.

Ensuring an Equitable Electric Vehicle Future

A common misconception is that Teslas are the only electric vehicles (EVs) available. This leads to the perception that EVs are only accessible to the rich and should not be considered as a decarbonizing transportation solution...

Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandates Accelerate EVs

ZEV mandates are a technology-forcing policy, encouraging automakers to produce cars with longer ranges, as vehicles sold with longer electric ranges earn more credits toward satisfying the mandate...

Jay Inslee Set the Standard for Presidential Candidate Climate Action

As someone who spends her waking hours working to accelerate the clean energy transition, I disagree strongly with critics who suggest that Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s aborted presidential campaign was a flop.

Eileen V. Quigley

How Expensive is an Electric Vehicle?

Upfront costs present a significant barrier to widespread Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption. EVs cost more than a comparably sized gas-powered car, although the cost of EVs has declined and is expected to continue to drop...

Implementing Deep Decarbonization in the Northwest

"Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest" aims to represent potential energy futures in enough technical detail to be used as blueprints to develop a future of the Northwest’s choosing.

Eileen V. Quigley

Deep Decarbonization is Achievable in Northwest

The Clean Energy Transition Institute released Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest on June 5, 2019. This study is the first economy-wide analysis to examine decarbonization pathways...

Eileen V. Quigley

Incentivizing Electric Vehicle Adoption

Policy incentives encouraging people to drive electric vehicles (EVs) are increasing as policymakers tackle the challenge of reducing transportation emissions to address growing concerns about climate change.

Pathways to a Clean Energy Future

The Clean Energy Transition Institute commissioned an economy-wide deep decarbonization pathways study to serve as a blueprint for how Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington might achieve a low-carbon, clean energy economy...

Eileen V. Quigley

Dealing with Range Anxiety

Although an electric vehicle’s (EV) speed, quiet ride, and smooth handling make it highly enjoyable to drive, many potential drivers may avoid EVs because of concerns about EV battery capacity, ready availability of public charging stations...

Deep Decarbonization Study Conclusions

The results of Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest demonstrate the feasibility of Northwest states to achieve deep decarbonization by mid-century, even if we postulate...

Eileen V. Quigley

A Beginner’s Guide to Alternative Fuel Vehicles

As the climate crisis grows, transportation sector emissions must be addressed. The transport sector in Washington and Oregon accounts for nearly half of all energy-related CO2 emissions.

Deep Decarbonization Cost Assessment

The scope of costs in "Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future in the Northwest" is limited to energy system costs, which represent the annual cost of producing, distributing, and consuming energy.

Eileen V. Quigley

The Role of Emerging Technologies

A variety of new and emerging technologies will be required to meet electricity demand in the 2040-2050 timeframe. Below is a brief discussion of those that the Northwest deep decarbonization pathways study identified.

Eileen V. Quigley

Eight Decarbonization Scenarios

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest explores multiple pathways for decarbonizing the region’s energy system, while addressing policy questions and potential implementation challenges in ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Five Deep Decarbonization Strategies

The deep decarbonization framework for the Northwest deep decarbonization pathways study, Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest centers around five decarbonization strategies ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Pathways Study Methodology and Emissions Target

Prior to commissioning Meeting the Challenge of Our Time, the Clean Energy Transition Institute convened a Deep Decarbonization Pathways Working Group and conducted numerous interviews with Northwest stakeholders ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time

Today, the Clean Energy Transition Institute released Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest, the first economy-wide analysis to examine decarbonization pathways mapped to the Northwest’s economic...

Eileen V. Quigley

Out of Thin Air: BC Start-Up Aims to Produce Jet and Other Fuels from Atmospheric Carbon, Water, and Renewable Energy.

BC Start-Up Aims to Produce Jet and Other Fuels from Atmospheric Carbon, Water, and Renewable Energy.

Ross Macfarlane

First Northwest Economy-Wide Deep Decarbonization Study

The first analysis to look economy-wide at Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana – Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest – offers a roadmap for decarbonizing the region ...

Funding Workforce Development for Retiring Coal Plants

Hundreds of coal plants across the country have closed, with more shutdowns in the last two years than the previous decade. The reason is clear: coal is now more expensive than renewables, such as wind and solar.

Hiking Footprints vs. Carbon Footprint

Our family has hiked together since our 12-year-old daughter was a newborn. I remember our daughter’s first decade as a series of literal peaks and valleys, many of them in the Olympics. I can picture her chasing butterflies over Marmot Pass ...

Launching the Clean Energy Transition Institute

Today we officially announced the launch of the Clean Energy Transition Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and analysis organization that provides a clearinghouse for information on decarbonization and facilitates conversations among...

Eileen V. Quigley

Clean Energy Driving Job Growth

These are dynamic times for the clean energy job sector, despite the Trump Administration’s best efforts to stymie clean energy in the United States by propping up the coal industry, derailing clean cars, and halting clean power.

Eileen V. Quigley

Efforts to Address Carbon Emissions

The scientific community has understood that burning fossil fuels could cause global temperatures to rise for nearly two centuries, but it wasn't until the 1990s that efforts were made to address this phenomenon ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Cities Adopting Best Practices and Lessons Learned at the Local Level

Now that we understand the decarbonization framework, have a sense of how cities understand their energy sources and uses, and break down carbon reduction targets and strategies, let's review best practices and lessons learned for urban carbon ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Cities Creating Strategies for Emission Reduction

Once a community’s overall sources and uses of energy are established, citizens and government officials must determine how to focus their emission-reduction efforts. To do so, they can use a carbon wedge analysis...

Eileen V. Quigley

Understanding Sources and Uses of Energy in Urban Areas

Setting priorities for climate action at the local level requires understanding where the biggest sources of emissions are and where you can get the biggest bang for your buck. As a foundation, you need to understand the sources and uses of energy...

Eileen V. Quigley

Use Less. Use Clean. Switch Fuels. Applying the Decarbonization Framework for Cities

Why should cities embrace a climate and clean energy agenda? Cities use 70% of global energy and therefore have a huge opportunity and responsibility to reduce their energy use and their greenhouse gas emissions. Half of the global population and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Chronicling Global Warming Milestones

Despite ongoing efforts of climate-denial proponents to present global warming science as new and unsettled, we have known for two centuries that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have the potential to severely disrupt the earth’s ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Tracking Climate Action at the City Level

While climate change presents a global imperative, cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and contribute over 70% of the greenhouse gas pollution, climate action at the local level is critically important. Further, the urban share of...

Eileen V. Quigley

Seattle Ups Ante on Climate Action

Newly elected Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan wasted no time making clear her commitment to serious climate action, announcing new carbon emission-reduction initiatives for transportation and buildings on April 4, 2018...

Eileen V. Quigley

Decarbonizing Northwest Energy Systems

Clean Energy Transition Institute Board member Ross Macfarlane and Executive Director Eileen V. Quigley co-teach a course during Winter Quarter at Western Washington University’s Institute for Energy Studies, called Northwest Energy Systems and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Counting Clean Energy Jobs

Clean energy is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy, with millions of jobs being created at the same time that traditional energy sectors, such as coal mining, face sharp declines. Tracking the progress in clean energy job ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Low-Carbon Pathways

The low-carbon pathways can be summarized into four broad actions ...

Eileen V. Quigley

The Great Coal Cleanup is Everybody's Business (with Opportunity for All)

Roughly one year ago, I wrote an article for GreenBiz in which I argued for greater corporate sector engagement on the pressing economic challenges in coal mining communities. In particular, I argued for a more inclusive form of ...

Why Coal Country Must be Part of the Clean Economy

One of the most remarkable developments in recent years has been the relatively drama-free embrace in many corners of the private sector of the concept of environmental externalities. Arguments over the indirect costs of fossil fuel combustion ...

Why Electrify Everything?

A basic decarbonization tenet is to clean the grid, electrify whatever processes can be electrified, and leave as small as possible a remaining carbon budget for the sectors that are harder to decarbonize, such as aviation.

Eileen V. Quigley

Achieving a Low-Carbon Future

Major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions require comprehensive changes not just in how we source energy, and manage forests and agricultural systems, but also in how we live and move in urban areas, where most of the world’s energy, materials ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Empower Cities to Take Bold Action

Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my observations about how local government can accelerate clean energy in Washington State. My name is Eileen Quigley and I direct Clean Energy Transition, a Seattle, WA-based organization that ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Carving Up Carbon Reduction Strategies

A community that has set an ambitious carbon-reduction target and mapped its sources and uses of energy is ready to determine how to carve up its reduction strategies using a Carbon Wedge Analysis ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Mapping a City's Energy Sources and Uses

So how does a city that has set an ambitious but achievable carbon emissions reduction goal go about actually achieving that target? They calculate their carbon footprint and determine how many emissions they have to reduce and then set targets to ..

Eileen V. Quigley

Cities Take Aim at Carbon Reduction

Working with nearly 30 Northwest communities from 2009-2017 offered the opportunity to learn many lessons about how cities can accelerate adoption of climate-smart, clean energy solutions, none more instructive than the need to set a clear ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Promises that Can’t be Kept: Trump and Coal

President Donald Trump kicked off a campaign rally in the coal-dependent state of West Virginia on August 3, with this assertion that he is reviving the moribund coal industry and putting miners back to work. How does this claim hold up?

Ross Macfarlane

Shaping the Future of Autonomous Vehicles

In the coming decades, autonomous vehicles (AVs) will likely cause unprecedented disruption to the passenger vehicle market. Under optimistic projections, AVs are anticipated to reach a 50 percent market share by 2040 and 90 percent share by 2050 ...

Are We There Yet?

This summer, I participated in an event sponsored by the Port of Seattle unveiling a new report that addresses how to make sustainable aviation fuels economically competitive.

Ross Macfarlane

Cities' Path to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy

Although President Trump has committed to pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, many of our cities are still moving full steam ahead to clear the air and fight climate change. More than 200 U.S. municipalities have declared ...

How Cities Create Climate Action Plans

Over the past decade, cities and counties have become increasingly knowledgeable about developing meaningful CAPs and best practices from first-generation CAPs that the nation’s largest and best-funded cities created.

Eileen V. Quigley

Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution

Welcome to Clean Energy Transition, an initiative that promotes strategies to accelerate the transition from fossil fuel to clean energy, focusing on low-carbon pathways, urban clean energy, and clean energy economics.

Eileen V. Quigley

All the King's Horses-Why Coal Isn't Coming Back

During his campaign, Donald Trump promised struggling coal mining communities that he would bring back all the jobs that have been disappearing over the past decades. Outlining his energy agenda last May, Trump told coal miners to...

Ross Macfarlane

Stepping Up on Urban Clean Energy

With cities accounting for 70% of global carbon emissions, and half the world and 80 percent of Americans living in urban environments, cities should play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Eileen V. Quigley

Here Comes the Sun

A clean electricity grid is a climate twofer: not only does a completely renewable power supply make it easier to decrease building sector and industry carbon emissions, it also paves the road for removing carbon pollution from the transport sector..

Eileen V. Quigley

Portland Advances Residential Energy Efficiency

Portland, OR Mayor Charlie Hales released a draft Home Energy Score policy on September 7 that would require sellers of all single-family homes within the city limits to obtain a home energy performance report and disclose the results when listing...

Eileen V. Quigley

King County-Cities Climate Collaboration

Established in 2011, the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) is a voluntary but formal partnership of King County and 13 cities forged with the idea that neighboring local governments can achieve deeper results on climate solutions by...

Eileen V. Quigley

Getting the Job Done

What a difference five years has made! In 2010, the outlook for significant climate action was bleak, with the dismal Copenhagen Climate Summit that failed to produce an agreement on legally binding carbon emission reduction commitments, and ...

Eileen V. Quigley

Getting Serious about Reducing Carbon Emissions

Wasting no time in 2015, local elected officials from 12 King County cities, led by King County Executive Dow Constantine, got down to brass tacks the first work week of January to determine how to achieve ambitious countywide carbon reduction goals.

Eileen V. Quigley

Occupy the Future

Climate Week draws to a close, a resounding success in focusing the world’s attention on the importance of addressing climate change. The UN Climate Summit 2014 was the catalyst for the week's events. It remains to be seen what will happen ...

Eileen V. Quigley

This is What Climate Leadership Looks Like

With Congress unwilling to take concerted action on climate change, it's worth celebrating that county and city leaders in the Northwest are up to the task of climate leadership at the regional scale.

Eileen V. Quigley

Capture Carbon, Save Money, Enhance Communities

On August 1, 2013, the City of Portland graciously hosted the Northwest Biocarbon Initiative (NBI) along with our partners at Ecotrust and the Willamette Partnership to announce the release of NBI’s new report, Natural Infrastructure ...

Eileen V. Quigley

California: Gold Standard for Climate and Clean Energy

In the absence of national climate and energy policy, US local and regional leaders are developing the climate and clean energy policies, strategies, and projects required to reduce carbon emissions and the state of California is the gold standard...

Eileen V. Quigley

On the Cutting Edge with Oregon Communities

The New Energy Cities joined close to 200 Oregon mayors and city managers in Bend, OR on January 22 at the Oregon Governor’s Cutting Edge Communities Symposium. A terrific kick-off for a promising initiative!

Eileen V. Quigley

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Publications

Meeting the Challenge of Our Time: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the Northwest

The first economy-wide analysis to examine decarbonization pathways mapped to the Northwest’s economic and institutional realities. The Clean Energy Transition Institute commissioned this study to understand how Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington could technically and economically achieve a low-carbon economy over the next three decades.

Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways Study

Case Statement for a deep decarbonization pathways study that would offer guidance to Washington and Oregon policymakers, advocates, and investors for developing climate policy by addressing the question: How does the Northwest decarbonize the built environment, transport sector, and electricity grid between now and 2050 and at what cost?

Eileen V. Quigley

Deep Decarbonization Pathways Studies Analysis

Summary and analysis of decarbonization pathways studies to inform Northwest policymakers, funders, legislators, local government officials, and climate advocates about how to advance a low-carbon/decarbonization pathways study for the region, particularly for Washington and Oregon.

Why Electric Vehicles are a Climate Solution

Eileen edited this report authored by Seth Zuckerman and published by Climate Solutions examining the impact that electric vehicles could have on addressing climate change, as well has how the grid can provide the electricity required to power mass adoption of electrification.

Eileen V. Quigley

Urban Clean Energy Revolution

Eileen edited this report authored by Elizabeth Willmott and published by Climate Solutions, which examined the critical ingredients for successful city-led climate action and carbon pollution reduction. (November 2015)

Eileen V. Quigley

Toward Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Eileen edited this report (authored by Seth Zuckerman, published by Climate Solutions) exploring progress toward reducing global carbon pollution from commercial aviation 50 percent by 2050, which accounts for 2 percent of global carbon pollution and is forecast to grow to between 3 and 4.7 percent by 2050 without concerted action to curb emissions.

Breaking Barriers to Deep Energy Efficiency

Eileen edited this briefing paper authored by Elizabeth Willmott and published by Climate Solutions, which offers lessons learned from both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Washington State investments in single family residential retrofits since 2009 to inform a regional retrofit strategy for King County, WA.

Revolution Required: Meeting Current and Future Energy Challenges

Eileen delivered this paper and presentation at the Kühne Logistics Universität in Hamburg, Germany for the City of Tomorrow Series on May 7, 2015.

Eileen V. Quigley

Natural Infrastructure: A Climate-Smart Solution

This report, co-written with Rhys Roth and published by Climate Solutions, examines the role that natural infrastructure plays in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, removing carbon pollution, and building resilience to impacts of climate change.

Eileen V. Quigley

Powering the New Energy Future from the Ground Up

A report co-written with Elizabeth Willmott and published by Climate Solutions on how 34 American cities with fewer than 250,000 residents reduced their dependence upon fossil fuels for energy and catalyzed local clean energy with federal stimulus funds.

Eileen V. Quigley

Energizing Cities: New Models for Driving Clean Energy Investment

A guide for local elected officials, county and city staff, energy utility managers, and community stakeholders to the steps needed in designing and financing clean energy programs edited by Eileen. A joint project with Climate Solutions' New Energy Cities program, Pareto Global, the University of Oregon Center for Sustainable Business, and ...

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Presentations

Montana Governor's Climate Solutions Council Presentation

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to Montana Governor Steve Bullock's Climate Solutions Council on December 10, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

Institute Fall Conference Presentations

The Institute delivered three major presentations at conferences in November and December.

Eileen V. Quigley

Washington State Key Stakeholders Briefing

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to key business, utility, nonprofit advocates, and policymakers on October 24, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

Briefing for Washington Governor Jay Inslee's Staff and Agencies

A briefing on October 24, 2019 of the study's Washington State-only results of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study for Governor Jay Inslee's climate and clean energy policy and agency staff.

Eileen V. Quigley

October Key Stakeholders Convenings

The Institute convened key Washington State stakeholders in the state over two days in October to present and discuss the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study.

Eileen V. Quigley

Northwest Power Planning Council Briefing

Presentation of the Northwest Deep Decarbonization Pathways study to the Northwest Power Planning Council on August 13, 2019.

Eileen V. Quigley

Urban Clean Energy Efforts

Guest lecture presented to the Rainier Club’s public affairs committee that discussed what cities can do to reduce carbon emissions and discussed the City of Seattle’s recently updated climate action plan.

Eileen V. Quigley

Low-Carbon Pathways for the Northwest

Presentation that explores the low-carbon pathways for the Northwest in the context of existing deep decarbonization pathways studies, both for the United States and for Washington and Oregon, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on March 15, 2018.

Clean Energy Workforce

Presentation that looks at clean energy job growth, utility worker retirement, transitioning fossil fuel workers, and economic opportunity for low- and middle-income workers, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course.

100% Renewable Movement

Presentation that explores the concept of and controversy about the 100% Renewable or 100% Clean Movement and how cities and businesses are embracing it, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 27, 2018.

Public Opinion and Climate Advocacy

Presentation that reviews public opinion polls about climate change; climate denial efforts; media coverage of climate change; the impact of weather events; and various clean energy advocacy and movement-building efforts, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 22, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

City-Led Clean Energy Innovation (San Luis Obispo)

Webinar conducted on February 21, 2018 for San Luis Obispo, CA that looked at best practices in urban clean energy and lessons learned from nearly a decade of helping small and mid-sized cities develop strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

Eileen V. Quigley

Build It and They Will See

Presentation that looks at the various advantages that the Cascadia region has in terms of electricity, transportation, and green building to achieve the low-carbon pathways, delivered for Portland State University on February 19, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

City-Led Climate Action

Presentation that provides a chronology of city climate action in the United States and internationally and describes the best high-level roles and policies for cities to decarbonize, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 15, 2018.

Decarbonization in Action

Presentation that looks at decarbonization efforts in Germany, the European Union, China, and the United States, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on February 8, 2018.

Low-Carbon Pathways: Transportation

Presentation that explores the low-carbon pathways for the transportation sector, with emphasis on electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on January 30, 2018.

Low-Carbon Pathways: Electricity

Presentation that explores the low-carbon pathways for the electricity sector, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on January 23, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

Low-Carbon Pathways Overview

Presentation that offers an overview of the low-carbon pathways to economy-wide deep decarbonization, delivered for Western Washington University Institute for Energy Studies course on January 11, 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

City-Led Clean Energy Innovation — Energy Mapping & Carbon Wedge Analyses

Energy maps and carbon wedge analyses for eight cities in Washington and Oregon created by Climate Solutions’ New Energy Cities team and Clean Energy Transition from 2012-2017. Current as of October 2017.

Future of Sustainable Aviation Biofuels

Presentation given by Ross Macfarlane at a Port of Seattle event on July 19, 2017, outlining the current state of sustainable aviation fuels.

Ross Macfarlane

Repowering Mobility: Envisioning a New Future for Transportation

Keynote presentation given at Western Washington University’s Repowering Mobility conference on April 18, 2017, exploring the various challenges and opportunities for decarbonizing aviation, freight, marine, and passenger vehicles.

Eileen V. Quigley

City of Olympia Energy Map and Carbon Wedge Analysis

Presentation to the City of Olympia, Washington staff on the community's energy sources and uses, as well as a depiction in a wedge analysis of where the city could invest in strategies to reduce carbon emissions to achieve a target of 50 percent fewer emissions from 2014 levels by 2030.

Eileen V. Quigley

City of Everett Energy Map and Carbon Wedge Analysis

Presentation to the Everett, Washington City Council on the community's energy sources and uses, as well as a depiction in a wedge analysis of where the city could invest in strategies to reduce carbon emissions to achieve a target of 50 percent fewer emissions from 2014 levels by 2030.

Eileen V. Quigley

Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition

Presentation exploring climate change; climate change denial; the climate movement; clean energy economics; and the ways to get off of coal and oil and invest in clean energy given at the Port Townsend Salon, a community lecture series featuring experts in science and culture.

Eileen V. Quigley

Pathways to a Low-Carbon Future

Presentation to a graduate seminar on eco-capitalism at the University of Washington describing the pathways to clean energy with a focus on national, state, and city actions.

Eileen V. Quigley

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References

Decarbonization Reading List

Reading list that Clean Energy Transition Institute Board member Ross Macfarlane and Executive Director Eileen V. Quigley developed for a course they co-taught during the Winter Quarter 2018 at Western Washington University’s Institute for Energy Studies. Readings and citations were current as of March 31, 2018.

City Climate Solutions References

A curated list of studies, reports, and articles related to decarbonizing cities, current as of January 2018.

Eileen V. Quigley

Key Decarbonization References

Non-exhaustive, but curated list of studies, reports, books, and articles that are valuable to read to gain understanding of how deep decarbonization can be achieved, current as of July 2017.

Transportation Decarbonization References

A list of studies, reports, books, and articles related to decarbonizing the freight, marine, aviation, and passenger vehicle sectors, current as of April 2017.

Eileen V. Quigley