Quantifying the Health Benefits of Clean Energy Policies with EPA’s AVERT and COBRA Tools

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) AVoided Emissions and geneRation Tool (AVERT) and the CO-Benefits Risk Assessment (COBRA) tool can be used by state, local, and tribal entities to evaluate and communicate the air quality, health, and economic benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and programs.

• AVERT estimates county-level changes in power plant emissions, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides (NOX), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and ammonia (NH3), resulting from the implementation of clean energy policies and programs.
• COBRA quantifies the air quality and health impacts of clean energy policies at the county, state, regional, or national levels and calculates the economic value of health-related benefits, such as reductions in cardiovascular and respiratory illness, fewer lost days of work, and decreased mortality rates.

In this Clean Energy Group webinar, Colby Tucker from EPA’s State and Local Energy and Environment Office and David Cooley from Abt Associates provided an introduction to AVERT and COBRA, overviewed their functionality, and walked through a demonstration of how the tools can be used in practice.