Energy and Natural Resources

CBO and staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation respond to questions about how they develop estimates of the budgetary and economic effects of legislation.

CBO provides an overview of federal tax credits that support investment in wind and solar electric power. The agency also explains how it assesses the credits’ budgetary and economic effects and how its baseline reflects JCT’s revenue estimates.

CBO assesses how climate change will pose risks to the United States through its effects on economic activity, real estate and financial markets, human health, biodiversity, immigration, and national security.

CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options and their estimated effects on the federal budget. This report presents 76 options for altering spending or revenues to reduce federal budget deficits over the next decade.

CBO provides an overview of greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing sector, presents projections of future emissions, and explains how uncertainty about economic conditions, fuel prices, and technology affects those projections.

CBO examines the status, federal support, and future potential of carbon capture and storage—a process that removes carbon dioxide from the emissions of power plants and industrial facilities and stores it permanently underground.

CBO describes recent trends in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the electric power sector, changes in how electric power is produced and the reasons for those changes, and expectations for future CO₂ emissions in that sector.

CBO provides an overview of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂, the most common greenhouse gas) in the transportation sector, describing the sources of and trends in such emissions and projecting their future path.

CBO issues a volume that contains short descriptions of 59 policy options that would each reduce the federal budget deficit by less than $300 billion over the next 10 years.

CBO examines trends in funding and spending for the Army Corps of Engineers and explains how CBO treats that agency’s activities in its baseline and cost estimates.

CBO describes how imposing a charge for methane emissions generally affects emissions, companies’ costs, and natural gas prices and discusses how the agency analyzes such a charge.

CBO examined what the costs would be if the New START Treaty expired in February 2021 and the United States increased its nuclear forces to the levels specified in the Moscow, START II, or START I treaties, considering two approaches for each.

This report discusses a range of threats that could cause widespread, long-lasting disruptions for the electric grid. CBO examines two illustrative approaches to enhance the security of the electric grid and highlights some considerations for policymakers to take into account.

In this report, CBO analyzes how the government manages access to oil and natural gas on federal lands and eight policy options that could modestly increase federal income from oil and gas leasing without significantly reducing production.

In fiscal year 2015, the federal government supported the development, production, and use of fuels and energy technologies through tax preferences totaling $15.8 billion and spending by the Department of Energy totaling $5.4 billion.