Policy Studies

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Energy Institute Policy Studies Draw Upon Interdisciplinary Knowledge & Expertise

The Energy Institute is conducting two multi-year, ongoing energy research studies that leverage UT Austin’s deep technical expertise with insights and analysis from multiple disciplines across campus, including engineering, law, policy, business, and economics.

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The Full Cost of Electricity

An interdisciplinary initiative to identify and quantify the full-system cost of electric power generation and delivery – from the power plant to the wall socket – to inform public policy discourse with comprehensive, rigorous and impartial analysis.

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Energy Infrastructure of the Future

The Energy Institute is coordinating an in-depth, interdisciplinary study aimed at deepening the understanding of the costs and impacts associated with investment in the nation’s aging energy infrastructure. In addition to exploring the differences in investment strategies and providing a rigorous and dispassionate analysis of costs, benefits, and opportunities of varying options, researchers will create decision support tools intended to better inform public dialogue and policy formulation.

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Permian Dialog

An initiative leveraging cooperation to reduce flaring and greenhouse gas emissions and advance the Permian Basin as a low carbon source of energy.

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Energy Tradeoffs

EnergyTradeoffs.com features conversations with scholars and experts whose work addresses the difficult tradeoffs associated with the green energy transition–tradeoffs between energy reliability, energy affordability, and the environmental impacts of energy production, as well as political and other tradeoffs.

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Report: The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts

The University of Texas at Austin has released an unbiased assessment of the data and events of the February 2021 winter storm Uri blackouts.