The Better Energy Community
The Better Energy Community is constantly growing and evolving.
For all the latest news and updates, check out our blog.
News and press:
Lola Schoenrich Stepping into New Leadership Role at GPI
From the blog:
Keeping Our Foot on the Clean Energy Accelerator
From the blog:
Shared and Active Transportation is Essential to Decarbonization
From the blog:
Argonne and GPI Launch R&D GREET Train-the-Trainer Program
From the blog:
Examining the Safety Record of Carbon Dioxide Pipelines
News & press:
Report: Lessons Learned from Twin Cities Climate and Energy Community Engagement Efforts
Who We Are
Convene, Inform, Agree, Act
The Great Plains Institute is an organization of leaders and experts dedicated to engaging and collaborating with people, organizations, and communities to craft nonpartisan, pragmatic energy solutions that benefit people, the economy, and the environment.
Our work is rooted in the relationships we’ve built over the last 25 years that result in more beneficial and durable outcomes.
Our Work
We combine our unique consensus-building approach with expert knowledge, research and analysis, and local action to find and implement lasting energy solutions that bridge political, economic, geographic, and cultural divides.
To achieve our mission, GPI works on solutions that strengthen communities and provide greater economic opportunity through creation of higher-paying jobs, expansion of the nation’s industrial base, and greater domestic energy independence while eliminating carbon emissions.
GPI’s goals for transforming the energy system are to:
- Increase energy conservation, efficiency, and productivity
- Decarbonize the production of electricity and electrify more of the economy
- Adopt zero-, low-, and carbon-negative fuels and practices to decarbonize whatever cannot be electrified across the other major emissions sectors: transportation, buildings, industry, and agriculture and forestry
- Deploy carbon capture, removal, transport, use, and storage to achieve a net reduction of emissions in the atmosphere
Road map to decarbonization
Great Plains Institute created a series of road maps that show how a low-carbon future is possible using existing technologies. Developed through consensus by diverse stakeholder groups, these road maps help guide industry and policymakers as they make decisions about low-carbon solutions that benefit the economy and environment. You can explore the road maps on electricity and transportation on our interactive website and check back for updates as we add chapters on decarbonizing buildings and industry.
Our work is based in the relationships we’ve built over the last 25 years that result in more beneficial and durable outcomes.
Explore the roadmap
We focus on five major areas of work:
Carbon Management
We are leading regional and national efforts with government, industry, labor, and nonprofit organizations to achieve the economic, jobs, and environmental benefits of deploying carbon management technologies critical to reaching mid-century decarbonization goals.
Communities
Cities and communities are critical to creating a better energy system because collectively they are big enough to matter and small enough to make changes quickly. GPI’s programs are designed to assist communities in different ways with all the elements needed to drive change.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy generation capacity in the US must increase dramatically to achieve a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035. As renewable energy becomes the economic leader in clean energy generation, we must resolve new deployment issues and challenges to realize our decarbonization goals.
Energy Systems
Our goal is to enable a net-zero greenhouse gas energy system that can support the energy needs of the country, including the additional load brought on by the electrification of other energy uses. We are also working to decarbonize end uses of natural gas and hydrogen. To achieve our goals, we take a systems-level approach, working at multiple scales and with a diverse range of key actors.
Transportation & Fuels
By creating fuels and chemicals from renewable sources while simultaneously electrifying the transportation system, we can reduce emissions by 50-90 percent while also cutting the cost per mile.
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