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Off-farm work is a growing reality in the US agricultural sector as a whole. Another staple program in the US agriculture is the use of crop insurance. This paper assesses hitherto unaddressed issues of fuel consumption and hence pollution generated by farm households associated with off-farm work and crop insurance. We applied a quantile regression method on a unique national farm-level survey data to address the fuel consumption issues. Results indicate that off-farm work by operators tends to decrease fuel expenses. In contrast, households with crop insurance had higher fuel consumption thereby increasing fuel usage. Finally, our study shows that the net effect of these two activities resulted in an increase...
This study uses a hedonic price model to estimate the effect of proximity to a ma jor fuel pipeline on housing prices, both before and after a high-profile accident. Using data for Belling ham, Washington, the site of a 1999 rupture and explosion, we find no significant effect of proximity to the pipeline prior to the accident. Following the accident, we find a substantial price effect; however, the effect decays rapidly with distance from the pipe line and also diminishes over time. Results suggest that for this type of environmental hazard, an ad verse event leads to an increase in perceived risk.
The concept of managing the environment and any associated human health impacts by means of such science-based tools as toxicological evaluation, risk assessment, and economic appraisal has become widely accepted in professional circles. These increasingly complex methodologies have not won universal support, however, even among the technically minded, and the wider public has in many cases remained sceptical. The public’s seeming lack of enthusiasm has frequently been assigned to ignorance of science, irrationality even, and some attempts have been made to ameliorate the situation by means of education, though with little evidence of success. However, this review advances an alternative explanation, namely, that...
This paper analyzes the determinants and barriers of energy conservation investment behaviour. A number of barriers were found in a literature survey. A three-phase investment model on the micro level was constructed. Hypotheses derived from the model were empirically tested by analyzing a survey of more than 300 Dutch Firms. Economic variables seem to determine investment behaviour to a large extent.
Eight major industrial processes areresponsible for over 50% of industrial energy consumption in most countries. The energy efficiency of these processes was determined in a number of countries, with appropriate corrections for structural differences between countries. It is shown that considerable differences occur between countries, but that manufacturing industry in Eastern Europe in general is less efficient than in EU countries. In all cases efficiency is worse than what is technically and economically feasible. International comparisons provide information on energy efficiency differences, insight into technological differences between countries and into costs requirements for efficiency improvements. The...
The potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the production of energy contained in hot dry rock (HDR) is surveyed here. In general, careful siting and timing and routine control measures should be adequate to prevent significant environmental harm; sites of particular ecological or visual and recreational value, however, may require more extensive (and more expensive) precautions such as using multiwell pads to reduce land disturbance and dry or wet and dry cooling towers to reduce or eliminate the consumptive use of water. The most important uncertainty among the environmental concerns is the seismic response of HDR formations to short-duration fluid injections at pressures above fracture thresholds;...
The provision of both electrical and mechanical energy services can play a critical role in poverty alleviation for the almost two billion rural users who currently lack access to electricity. Distributed generation using diesel generators remains a common means of electricity provision for rural communities throughout the world. Due to rising fuel costs, the need to address poverty, and consequences of global warming, it is necessary to develop cost efficient means of reducing fossil fuel consumption in isolated diesel microgrids. Based on a case study in Nicaragua, a set of demand and supply side measures are ordered by their annualized costs in order to approximate an energy supply curve. The curve highlights...
The condition of landscapes and the ecological communities within them is strongly related to levels of human activity. Human-dominated land uses and especially the intensity of the uses can affect adjacent ecological communities through direct, secondary, and cumulative impacts. Using land use data and a development-intensity measure derived from energy use per unit area, an index of Landscape Development Intensity (LDI) can be calculated for watersheds of varying sizes to estimate the potential impacts from human-dominated activities that are experienced by ecological systems within those watersheds. The intended use of the LDI is as an index of the human disturbance gradient (the level of human induced impacts...
Hydrates in nature have been known for a long time. In the last couple of decades the possibility of commercial utilization of natural hydrates has arisen as an alternative energy source. This paper asks 21 questions that, in the author’s opinion, need to be addressed and answered correctly before one can be confident one understands the scope of the problem one is facing in attempting to address the role of natural hydrates, both commercially and geologically.
The construction of new dams has become one of the most controversial issues in global efforts to alleviate poverty, improve human health, and strengthen regional economies. Unfortunately, this controversy has overshadowed the tremendous opportunity that exists for modifying the operations of existing dams to recover many of the environmental and social benefits of healthy ecosystems that have been compromised by present modes of dam operation. The potential benefits of dam "re-operation" include recovery of fish, shellfish, and other wildlife populations valued both commercially and recreationally, including estuarine species; reactivation of the flood storage and water purification benefits that occur when floods...
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The Alaska Geologic Data Index (AGDI) is an actively growing index of unpublished geologic data collected throughout the state of Alaska. The records captured range from project documents to imagery to geochemical data. The index is designed to contain data and documents pertaining to all related fields of geology, including oil and gas, geologic engineering, minerals industry, scientific data, and agency archives. The index can refer to paper or digital information. Agencies, institutions, and the public are encouraged to contribute unpublished data to this dataset. Data owners can pick from three levels of data availability. These include: public - the data records in AGDI are visible to the public, and the archived...
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Aerial photographs of the coastline from Wales to Teller were collected on August 27, 2015 - August 28, 2015. The photographs were processed using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques. Global Positioning System (GPS) checkpoints were collected via a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) survey conducted between August 15 and September 14, 2015. For the purposes of open access to elevation and orthoimagery datasets in coastal regions of Alaska, this collection is being released as a Raw Data File with an open end-user license. Orthoimages contain 4-band, 8-bit, unsigned raster data (red/green/blue/no data; file format-GeoTIFF; source-Fairbanks Fodar) with 20 cm GSD. No-data values are found...
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The State of Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) produced a digital surface model (DSM) and an orthorectified aerial optical image mosaic (orthoimagery) of the Resurrection Bay watershed, surrounding the city of Seward in south-central Alaska. Aerial photographs and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data were collected on August 13, 2015, and were processed using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques to create the DSM and orthoimagery. All data are projected in UTM Zone 6 North (meters) using the NAD83 (2011; EPSG 26906) horizontal datum and NAVD88 (Geoid12A; EPOCH 2010.00) vertical datum. The project was part of an ongoing investigation of the impact of flooding,...
Tags: Aerial, Bear Creek, Bear Lake, Bear Lake Glacier, Bear Mountain, All tags...
In this project on future sustainable transport alternatives a two-step search process has been followed. First an analysis of critical success and failure factors of new technological options in passenger transport is made. These factors are found in the spatial, institutional, economic and social/psychological environment of the transport system. Next, systematically structured and expert based scenarios are con- structed in order to achieve a sustainable transport system in the year 2030 in which possible, expected and desired developments in the distinct fields are analyzed. Finally some policy conclusions are drawn.
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 article underlines the main implications of the interrelations between the energy problem and that of environmental pollution, using the most widely used macroeconomic indicators in the field of policy analysis. In fact, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission intensity and energy intensity trends may be used to highlight the most important features of economic development over a given time scale in a variety of different countries. The empirical analysis proposed here—covering a time-span of some 40 years in a number of the most highly industrialised nations—seems to be useful if we are to understand the main similarities and differences in the interaction between the energy choices made by different countries and their...
The uptake of nitrous oxide (N2O) occurs at the surface of the earth both in terrestrial and aquatic systems. This uptake is usually neglected in N2O budget studies. In this article, we discuss the likeliness of N2O uptake in different systems. These systems include soils as well as groundwater systems, riparian zones and surface waters. We address the possible consequences of ignoring surface sinks for N2O in global budgets as well as in national emission inventories. Our estimated surface sink is relatively small compared to the estimates of the present-day global emissions. Neglecting a possible surface sink of N2O may, therefore, not have major consequences for atmospheric budget studies on the global scale....
We have developed a state-scale version of the MARKAL energy optimization model, commonly used to model energy policy at the US national scale and internationally. We apply the model to address state-scale impacts of a renewable electricity standard (RES) and a carbon tax in one southeastern state, Georgia. Biomass is the lowest cost option for large-scale renewable generation in Georgia; we find that electricity can be generated from biomass co-firing at existing coal plants for a marginal cost above baseline of 0.2-2.2 cents/kWh and from dedicated biomass facilities for 3.0-5.5 cents/kWh above baseline. We evaluate the cost and amount of renewable electricity that would be produced in-state and the amount of out-of-state...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Analysis, environmental, forces, impacts, tool
This paper introduces the special issue on Strategic Choices for Renewable Energy Investment, which is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in St. Gallen (Switzerland) in February 2010. Substantial private investment is needed if public policy objectives to increase the share of renewable energy and prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change are to be achieved. The aim of this paper, and the entire special issue, is to draw scholarly attention to the processes underlying strategic choices for renewable energy investment, and how they are influenced by energy policy. We disentangle the role of risk-return perceptions, portfolio effects and path dependence in explaining...
map background search result map search result map Alaska Geologic Data Index (AGDI) Photogrammetric digital surface models and orthoimagery for the continuous coastline, Wales to Platinum, Alaska, segment A: Wales to Teller Photogrammetry-derived digital surface model and orthoimagery of land areas near Resurrection Bay, Alaska Photogrammetry-derived digital surface model and orthoimagery of land areas near Resurrection Bay, Alaska Photogrammetric digital surface models and orthoimagery for the continuous coastline, Wales to Platinum, Alaska, segment A: Wales to Teller Alaska Geologic Data Index (AGDI)