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- Blog Post
To enhance its work for the Congress, CBO is looking for new research that illuminates the effects of federal regulations on energy markets and CO2 emissions, and the effects of federal spending on efforts to adapt to climate change.
- Blog Post
CBO’s Director, Phillip Swagel, discusses the agency’s budget and economic analysis during the pandemic.
- Blog Post
CBO has assessed how much the supply of various types of renewable fuels would have to increase over the next several years to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), and how food and fuel prices would vary in three scenarios.
- Blog Post
CBO examined 28 options that encompass a broad range of discretionary programs. About a third of the options would affect defense programs; the rest are for nondefense programs.
- Blog Post
Buyers of new electric vehicles receive federal tax credits of up to $7,500. How do the credits compare to the total lifetime cost of owning those vehicles and to the reduction in gasoline use and greenhouse gas emissions from driving them?
- Blog Post
Terry Dinan, senior advisor in CBO’s Microeconomic Studies Division, discusses her testimony before the Subcommittee on Energy of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
- Blog Post
CBO estimates that federal policies to promote the manufacture and purchase of electric vehicles (including some policies that support other types of fuel-efficient vehicles) will have a total budgetary cost of about $7.5 billion through 2019. Tax credits for buying electric vehicles—which account for about one-fourth of that budgetary cost—are likely to have the greatest impact on vehicle sales. Today CBO released a study on the effects of federal tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles. CBO finds that:
- Blog Post
Coal-powered facilities account for roughly a third of all U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, and most climate scientists believe that the buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could have costly consequences.
- Blog Post
Energy use—for electricity, transportation, and heating and air conditioning—is pervasive throughout the U.S. economy, representing 8.4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2010. About 80 percent of the energy used by households and businesses comes from oil, natural gas, and coal; the rest comes from nuclear power and renewable sources, such as wind and the sun. Disruptions in the supply of commodities used to produce energy tend to raise energy prices, imposing an increased burden on households and businesses.
- Blog Post
Federal highway and mass transit programs are financed largely by a variety of transportation-related excise taxes. The largest share of the revenues comes from the federal tax on gasoline, including gasoline that is blended with ethanol. Revenues from those taxes are credited to the Highway Trust Fund, and most of the spending for those programs is attributable to that fund. Because the gasoline tax is set as a fixed amount per gallon (currently 18.4 cents), policies that are designed to reduce gasoline consumption would decrease the amounts credited to the fund.