Month: July 2012

The Economist on Natural Gas: Slouching Toward Mediocrity

I was quite interested in finding last week that The Economist’s most recent major survey is about natural gas.  Given the explosion of natural gas resources (uh…so to speak) and the world’s growing reliance on it, I needed to get up to speed. Besides, from a climate perspective, getting the fracking issue right is crucial.  …

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Romney’s Advisers

As I’ve posted earlier, Romney’s website is staunchly anti-regulatory and pro-fossil fuel.  That’s also the position of his foremost energy advisrr, Harold Hamm. Hamm is the 66-year-old founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc. (CLR).  CLR is an oil producer which is leading the charge for fracking. Not surprisingly, Hamm loves “Mitt’s …

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Don’t Knock EPA’s Knack for NAAQS

On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit decided American Petroleum Institute (API) v. EPA, an interesting case dealing with nitrogen oxide (NO2) levels.  The standard is supposed to include a margin of safety.Under the Clean Air Act, EPA sets National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for airborne substances that endanger human health or welfare.  EPA set such …

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Do “Green Homes” Sell for a Price Premium?

Yes.   Nils Kok and I estimate a large 9% price premium for “Energy Star” certified California homes relative to similar homes that are not certified.   If you like to read about the “green economy”, here is  a free copy.   This study builds on my recent work estimating the price premium for solar …

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What’s New on the Seven Seas?

The scientific journal Nature reports on two recent research findings.  One is bad news.  I think the other is good news, but not everyone will agree. The first report (the bad news) is a reminder that ecological harm is a cumulative process: The [new] study suggests that the cold weather was the first of three …

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Health and Superfund

I belatedly happened across an interesting paper by Michael Greenstone.  The Abstract summarizes the key finding: We are the first to examine the effect of Superfund cleanups on infant health rather than focusing on proximity to a site. We study singleton births to mothers residing within 5km of a Superfund site between 1989-2003 in five …

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The FDA Bans BPA in Baby Bottles

The details are reported here.  Such bans on specific production inputs raise interesting economics issues related to “technology forcing” and industrial competition.  I am an optimist that there are many different ways to make a relatively low cost baby bottle.  In a a world with 7 billion people, if somebody can figure out a low …

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High Speed Rail’s A-Coming to California

With the California Legislature’s recent approval of the sale of voter-approved state bonds to fund high speed rail, it looks like the bullet train is actually coming to the state. Since voters approved the bonds in 2008, the economy has collapsed, and the details of the proposed route has made enemies out of many communities …

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Climate Strategies: “One Step at a Time” or “Don’t Jump the Gun”??

In some situations, voluntary efforts leads other people to join in, whereas in others, it encourages them to hold back.  There’s a similar issue about climate mitigation efforts at the national, regional, or state level.  Do these efforts really move the ball forward?  Or are they counterproductive, because other places increase their own carbon emissions …

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Assessing California’s cap-and-trade design

How vulnerable will California’s cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions be to market manipulation, noncompliance, and fraud?  Will the program’s public auctions of allowances serve a critical regulatory purpose, or are they just a big money grab?  With about four months to go before the highly anticipated first auction, these questions are important and getting …

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