Technology, Energy, Environment and Economic Impact (T3E) Assessment
National and international agencies turn to the Energy Policy & Economics (EP&E) Group and the tools we've developed for analyzing complex socioeconomic and environmental issues on regional, national, and global scales. Our staff conduct both macro- and micro-economic analysis and forecasting.
Over the last 20 years, our staff have conducted hundreds of energy, environmental, and economic impact assessments. These assessments provide government and industrial customers with data and analyses on the costs, benefits, and environmental and economic impacts of major technology adoption and land-use decisions ranging from local to international levels.
For example, we developed the Jaccard/Roop Industrial Energy Model (also known as the Industrial Technology Energy Modeling System-ITEMS) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). ITEMS is the only comprehensive economic-engineering model of U.S. manufacturing industries and the only model that can evaluate individual technology alternatives in individual industries.
We operate the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), DOE's official forecasting tool for evaluating new technologies and programs to enhance U.S. residential and commercial energy efficiency. We also track the commercial technologies funded by DOE and their benefits, energy savings, gaseous emissions, and number of installations to determine the impacts of various DOE programs. We work with commercial technology developers in DOE's financial assistance programs to help them commercialize their concepts.
In response to an Internal Revenue Service request to estimate excise tax revenues based on economic indicators, EP&E staff built an economic model that forecasts fuel use. Then, based on information about tax rates for each of the separate fuels, staff estimate excise tax revenues. The EP&E model is complete for gasoline, and the modeling team is adding other fuels subject to excise tax. EP&E researchers often lead and contribute their expertise to national or international panels or activities, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports.
For economic impact analyses of domestic energy and technology developments, we developed the Life Cycle Plus™ and ImBuild models and adapted the IMPLAN model. For international analysis of the adoption and consequences of energy technologies, we helped develop the MiniCAM and Second Generation Model of the world energy markets. The capabilities encoded in these models are in the vanguard for international policy analysis of the benefits and costs of energy efficiency, technology development, and carbon sequestration representing some of the most advanced thinking in the world on global warming and carbon emissions mitigation technologies.
For further information on T3E, contact Dave M. Anderson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), at (509) 375-6781.
PNNL Estimates the Economic Impacts of Federal R&D Investments flyer