Environmental and Energy Study Institute

EESI educates policymakers, builds coalitions, and develops innovative policies to protect the climate and ensure a healthy, secure, and sustainable future for America. This work is accomplished through three main program areas: Energy and Climate, Sustainable Biomass and Energy, and Transportation and Energy.

Energy and Climate Program

EESI's Energy and Climate Program educates policymakers on science, technology and policy issues through Congressional briefings, the weekly Climate Change News, and policy analysis. It supports policy changes and strategies that will allow the United States and other countries to mitigate climate change, while also reaping the environmental, economic, national security and public health benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

• High Performance Green Buildings Initiative
  Buildings in the United States account for 40 percent of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. EESI is educating Congress on the importance of the building sector and working to develop policies that encourage or require buildings to be energy efficient and use renewable energy.

Sustainable Biomass and Energy Program

EESI’s strategy is to have biomass – substantively and politically – become part of any climate change mitigation strategy. Enormous opportunities exist for developing rural America’s clean energy resources, including bioenergy – the production of electricity, useable heat, liquid fuels and biobased products from biomass. The Sustainable Biomass and Energy Program works to develop policies and incentives that will help diversify feedstocks and appropriate technologies to build an environmentally sustainable bioenergy industry.

• Sustainable Forest Biomass Initiative
  Completed in July 2009, this initiative was designed to develop policies and incentives to help diversify feedstocks and technologies to build an environmentally sustainable bioenergy industry, with a focus on the utilization of wood residues, timber slash, and small-diameter, low-quality trees from forest operations and the forest products industry. The project culminated with the publication of a policy paper entitled Sustainable Forest Biomass: Promoting Renewable Energy and Forest Stewardship.

Transportation and Energy Program

Transportation accounts for more than one quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and approximately 70 percent of all U.S. oil use, consuming more than 14 million barrels of oil per day. The Transportation and Energy Program works with a wide variety of transportation, energy, economic, and environmental interests to advance policies and programs at the federal and state level to address overlapping energy and climate challenges related to transportation.

• Planning for a New Energy and Climate Future
  EESI and the American Planning Association are collaborating on this joint project to help planners integrate energy and climate issues into their work. Resources include a database of online tools and a companion report.
• Idle Reduction and Clean School Bus Curriculum
  EESI worked with the Utah Clean Cities Program and the National Energy Foundation to develop a free curriculum to help school officials and bus drivers reduce unnecessary school bus idling. Idle reduction programs using this curriculum have saved fuel while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants.