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Energy autarky is presented as a conceptual framework for implementing sustainable regional development based on the transformation of the energy subsystem. It is conceptualized as a situation in which the energy services used for sustaining local consumption, local production and the export of goods and services are derived from locally renewable energy resources. Technically, the implementation of higher degrees of energy autarky rests on increasing energy efficiency, realizing the potential of renewable energy resources and relying on a decentralized energy system. Practically, a transition towards regional energy autarky requires administrations and civil society actors to initialize and develop projects at...
There is no shortage of U.S. energy policy studies, analyses and recommendations. Each new U.S. administration' and many state govemments seek to develop their own energy policy approach, and yet over time, it seems as if little progress actually is made toward achieving stated energy policy objectives. As an example, consider the following conclusions from a key report. Throughout this decade, oil will remain the single most important commercial fuel, while such other primary and secondary energy sources as natural gas, coal, nuclear power, electricity, and energy from renewable sources must be relied upon increasingly.
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Solar development has the potential to have widespread impacts on the California desert. Thus, it is important to have as much information as possible regarding the impacts of facilities and related infrastructure on the natural ecosystem and surrounding desert communities, how current policies are influencing development, and how the federal process is working on evaluating solar development applications. This research is detailed in this website. "Renewable Energy in the California Desert: Mechanisms for Evaluating Solar Development on Public Lands" is the result of sixteen months of research conducted by ten graduate students from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environmen t through...
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The Central Arizona Grassland Conservation Strategy (CAGCS) was signed (2010) by three signatory agencies to the charter with complementary roles and responsibilities in managing historic grassland ecosystems and/or the wildlife species that inhabit them. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) management emphasis within the Agua Fria National Monument (AFNM) is to conserve and restore diverse habitats, vegetative communities and corridors of connectivity to sustain a wide range of native species. The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) hold the public trust responsibility of managing the wildlife that inhabits these ecosystems. This includes but is not limited to gathering and managing wildlife data, and providing...
This paper estimates the extra costs of drilling for oil and gas on federal land as compared to private land in the Wyoming Checkerboard. The Checkerboard is a center of U.S. oil and gas activity in which square-mile sections of property alternate between federal and private ownership as originally established by the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864. This land ownership pattern is used as an experimental control that may be used to identify differences in drilling cost on federal and private land. Estimates presented suggest that average drilling costs per well are about $200,000 higher on federal property than on private property. This difference is attributed to more stringent enforcement of environmental...
By replacing fossil fuels bioenergy has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but indirect effects might partly or even completely eliminate this benefit. Production of bio-energy products, such as biofuels for transport, causes several indirect effects through their interactions with the global economic and physical systems. Indirect land-use change leads to GHG emissions – in some cases in the same order of magnitude as the fossil emissions – and loss of nature, but there are other relevant indirect effects as well. Intensification of agricultural production is another indirect effect and could be stimulated more to minimise the undesirable land conversion. However, intensification through increased...
This report presents the results of a social cost evaluation of three prospective photovoltaic electricity supply technologies. The technologies--based on cadmium sulfide, silicon, and gallium arsenide--are compared with each other and with coal in three categories of direct social impacts: occupational and public health and environmental effects. Indirect impacts, due to opportunity costs and benefits, or to health or other effects of use of material, labor or energy itself, are also considered. Special attention is given to regulatory issues that will arise in connection with these social costs and to their potential importance to government programs and commercial development.
As wind power development continues at a rapid pace in the United States, there is increasing interest in its economic impacts. Because good wind resources are typically far from electrical loads, wind power plants are often built in rural areas. The economic impacts that arise from building and operating a power plant can be significant but are often not considered by public utility commission processes. Although these impacts vary from state to state because of the differences in wind resource and state infrastructure, economic development from new wind provides important impacts from necessary power system expansion and should play a more prominent role in decision-making processes. This paper uses the National...
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The Urban Influence measure developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) identifies metropolitan counties by population size and outlines where natural area and urban boundaries exist. This can help to indicate where increased stresses on ecosystem services may occur.The boundaries between urban, rural, and natural areas in Appalachia are increasingly defined by the accelerated demand for ecosystem services from growing urban populations. Increases in “urbanness” not only stress the capacity of affected landscapes to provide ecosystem services, but also magnify the pressure on nearby natural areas to provide those services to more people. However, opportunities exist for...
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The borderlands of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the Big Bend-Río Bravo (BBRB; the Rio Grande is known as the Río Bravo in Mexico) region, have one of the highest levels of diversity and endemic species among the world’s arid and semiarid ecosystems. This large binational area, comprised by a total of eleven protected areas in Texas, Coahuila, and Chihuahua, offers a unique opportunity for conservation because of its isolation from human settlements and the unfragmented nature of its landscape. Connectivity of habitats in these borderlands is essential to maintain and restore biodiversity, particularly in the face of a changing climate. Private land conservation efforts underway in both countries add an important dimension...
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About NM Resource Geographic Information System (RGIS) is New Mexico’s geospatial data clearinghouse, hosted and managed by the Earth Data Analysis Center at University of New Mexico for over 23 years. The RGIS Program was created by the New Mexico Legislature in 1988 and was designated as the state digital geospatial data clearinghouse in 2013. The RGIS Program was designed and developed specifically by the Earth Data Analysis Center (EDAC) and the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at the University of New Mexico. The RGIS Program mission is to develop and expand geographic information and use of GIS technology, creating a comprehensive GIS resource for state and local governments, educational institutions,...
This paper presents information relevant to rule-making for geopressuredgeothermal development on state-owned lands. The analysis is focused on those potential social and economic effects of resource development, if any, which may require special attention during the leasing and permitting process. For the most part, many of the expected socioeconomic impacts are not unique to geothermal development, but are already being felt by residents of the fairways because of ongoing developmental activities. The social and economic impacts likely to result from resource development depend upon characteristics specific to the site and surrounding social and economic systems. Specific impacts and their probability, magnitude,...
Social effects of building and operating nuclear power plants result from impacts upon (1) socially-valued aspects of the physical environment and (2) the social structure itself. Sudden, temporary population growth during construction may strain financial and organizational resources of rural areas. Large increases in tax base result from operation of privately-owned power plants, affecting tax structures and land use balances in site-specific fashion. Assessment of impacts involves dimensioning with fourteen descriptors, and analysis of impact recipient groups. Dissociation of social costs and benefits may occur (1) through time-lag between costs and benefits, (2) when different groups are beneficiaries and payees,...
The accuracy of hydraulic fracturing stress measurements depends strongly on an accurate interpretation of the fluid pressures recorded during the tests. However, a variety of factors can lead to indistinct instantaneous shut-in or fracture reopening pressures which contributes to uncertainties in the data interpretation. A complex hydrofrac data set from a 1.5 km deep wellbore at Moodus, Connecticut is used here to discuss an interactive system for analysis of pressure, injection rate and accumulated volume as well as the pressurization rate and stiffness of the hydraulic system at various stages of the experiment. The hydraulic fracturing data presented here require a particularly careful inspection of the pressure...
Over the 1970s and 1980s, emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use fell in per capita, per unit GDP, and in some cases in absolute terms in 10 industrialized countries studied by LBNL. These declines were driven principally by falling end-use energy intensities and the decreasing carbon content of energy. By the early 1990s, however, a slowdown in the decline of intensities and the continued growth of GDP and energy services activity have reversed the trends in absolute emissions. LBNL concludes that CO2 emissions will continue to rise in the future unless energy intensities and/or the carbon content of energy can be decreased at an accelerated rate via policy changes, technological innovation and/or behavioural...
High-temporal resolution meteorological output from the Parallel Climate Model (PCM) is used to assess changes in wildland fire danger across the western United States due to climatic changes projected in the 21st century. A business-as-usual scenario incorporating changing greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations until the year 2089 is compared to a 1975 - 1996 base period. Changes in relative humidity, especially drying over much of the West, are projected to increase the number of days of high fire danger ( based on the energy release component (ERC) index) at least through the year 2089 in comparison to the base period. The regions most affected are the northern Rockies, Great Basin and the Southwest - regions...
As technical efficiency improvement in energy use remains a touchstone measure to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, there is substantial concern about whether this approach can offset the large and expanding impacts of human actions. Critics contend that without adjustments to the prevailing consumptive lifestyle, energy efficiency improvement will generate only token reductions in GHG emissions. I address this concern by examining the extent to which technical efficiency improvement in energy use offsets the impacts of housing-related lifestyle on GHG emissions. I build from two perspectives, the physical-technical-economic models that consider energy efficiency improvement as a potent strategy to curb residential...
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Annual average wind resource potential of the northwestern United States at a 50 meter height.
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This Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) was written to guide management on Cabeza Prieta NWR for the next 15 years. This plan outlines the Refuge vision and purpose and describes how Cabeza Prieta NWR will contribute to the overall mission of the Refuge System. The plan provides an introduction to the Refuge, an overview of the CCP process, management alternatives, the affected environment, and environmental consequences. Key planning issues include: wildlife and habitat management, endangered species, desert bighorn sheep management, predator management, visitor services, and public use.
map background search result map search result map Wind Renewable Potential Energy Development Zones for Wyoming 400 meter Renewable Energy in the California Desert New Mexico Resource Geographic Information System (RGIS) Economic Research Council Urban Influence Codes 2013 Conservation Assessment for the Big Bend-Río Bravo Region/ Evaluación de la conservación para la región Big Bend-Río Bravo Central Arizona Grassland Conservation Strategy Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan, Wilderness Stewardship Plan, Environmental Impact Statement Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan, Wilderness Stewardship Plan, Environmental Impact Statement Central Arizona Grassland Conservation Strategy Conservation Assessment for the Big Bend-Río Bravo Region/ Evaluación de la conservación para la región Big Bend-Río Bravo Renewable Energy in the California Desert Wind Renewable Potential Energy Development Zones for Wyoming 400 meter New Mexico Resource Geographic Information System (RGIS) Economic Research Council Urban Influence Codes 2013