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Environmental Economics: Peak oil (demand)
From the WSJ (Oil Demand Expected to Peak This Decade as EVs Boom): Rising demand for crude oil is set to slow to a trickle within five years and peak before the end of the decade, as electric-vehicle uptake surges and developed nations rapidly transition to cleaner sources of energy,...
Environmental Economics: 2023 Berkeley Summer School in Environmental and Energy Economics | August 14-18, 2023
via Max Auffhammer: Thanks to generous renewal funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Berkeley Summer School will take place again this year – in person! The goal of the summer school is to provide doctoral students nationwide, who have completed the core first year microeconomics and econometrics requirement,...
Environmental Economics: I try to assign a number to Krugman's estimate of the value of not commuting and come up short
Krugman (Working From Home and Realizing What Matters): First things first: The reduction in commuting time is a seriously big deal. Before the pandemic, the average American adult spent about 0.28 hours per day, or more than 100 hours a year, on work-related travel. (Since not all adults are employed,...
Environmental Economics: Some thoughts on non-probability, aka opt-in, survey panels
I participated in a survey conducted by Clemson this week. I was eligible because I had published a paper using opt-in panel data at some point. I posted the image to the right to twitter and proceeded to provide a brief review of what I thought about each of the...
Environmental Economics: An extra credit (climate economics) question
On the day of the final in my 2000 level environmental and resource economics course, the WSJ published the article on Clean Power Plan 2.0 (Biden Administration Targets Power-Plant Emissions in New Climate Initiative): The Biden administration proposed new rules Thursday to drastically reduce greenhouse gases from coal- and gas-fired...
Environmental Economics: Climate protectionism on this side of the Atlantic
From E&E news (Senators eye ‘CHIPS 2.0’ as vehicle for carbon tariff): As senators from both parties seek a pathway for advancing a bill imposing carbon tariffs, a potentially viable vehicle has emerged: a nascent legislative package to boost U.S. competitiveness against China. Senate Democrats announced last week they want...
Environmental Economics: Another reason to avoid MDPI journals
They'll go after you if you call them predatory. From Retraction Watch: A 2021 article that found journals from the open-access publisher MDPI had characteristics of predatory journals has been retracted and replaced with a version that softens its conclusions about the company. MDPI is still not satisfied, however. The...
Environmental Economics: Whenever I think about quitting @twitter because of Leon I see something like this
Just gonna drop this here for those who need a reminder which approaches have the greatest potential for net emissions reductions... from that controversial source, the IPCC (AR6 WG3 2022). pic.twitter.com/CcX8DTkx3x — Dr. Julia K. Baum (@baumlab) May 7, 2023
Environmental Economics: Make sure that you sign up for the May 9th "Revising Regulatory Review: Expert Insights on the Biden Administration’s Guidelines for Regulatory Analysis"
From the GW Regulatory Resources Center: Revising Regulatory Review: Expert Insights on the Biden Administration’s Guidelines for Regulatory Analysis Tue, 9 May, 2023 10:30am - 3:00pm Please join the GW Regulatory Studies Center and the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis for a timely discussion of recent changes to regulatory practices and...
Environmental Economics: I'm the worst at game theory but have to keep trying (i.e., help me write a test question)
I teach an online MBA managerial economics class and try to inject environmental content as much as I can (after all, we have the #1 ranked sustainable MBA program in NC). I'm terrible at game theory but I think I have found a WSJ article that helps (Tesla’s Price Cuts...
Environmental Economics: Free Webinar: Valuing Environmental Catastrophes (with an impressive lineup of experts if I do say so myself!)
Feel free to promote far and wide. Intended for a non-expert audience (my goal is to get a spot in the sequel to this blockbuster). If you don't like QR codes, you can register here.
Environmental Economics: Why did Wiley buy Hindawi Publishing?
If you have published an article in a Wiley journal lately you may have noticed the Hindawi brand name shows up alongside Wiley at various stages of the process (at least, that is my recollection). You may have also noticed that Hindawi is a sketchy publisher, sometimes accused of predatory...
Environmental Economics: And you may find yourself in another part of the world
We started blogging again this year and it has been fun. I've managed to keep up with my quantity expections (quality is an issue) ... until I took two trips in April. I've found that I can't do everything anymore. Actually, I can't do hardly anything anymore, it seems, but...
Environmental Economics: Climate protectionism
From the WSJ (World’s First Carbon Import Tax Approved by EU Lawmakers): The European Union’s parliament approved legislation to tax imports based on the greenhouse gases emitted to make them, clearing the final hurdle before the plan becomes law and enshrines climate regulation in the rules of global trade for...
Environmental Economics: Monday's Misleading Headline: A short-term dip does not a trend make
Gallup reports: "Concern About Several Environmental Problems Dips in U.S." Here's the evidence. So, I downloaded the data, redrew the graphs, added trendlines, then deleted the original data to better suss out the underlying trends without all the confusing squiggly lines. Here you go. Oh, and I gave it a...
Environmental Economics: The Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis is offereing six professional development workshops this year
via the SBCA email list: The Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis is offering six professional development workshops this year, organized by leading experts. They include the following; more information is available here: https://www.benefitcostanalysis.org/workshops. Benefit-Cost Analysis for Beginners (Glenn Blomquist and David Weimer) Economics of Addiction (Elizabeth Botkins, Aaron Kearsley, Don Kenkel,...
Environmental Economics: EPA: The benefits of proposed automobile tailpipe standards are estimated to be $1 trillion more than costs
From the WSJ (EPA Seeks to Boost EVs With Toughest-Ever Rules on Tailpipe Emissions): The Biden administration is proposing new limits on vehicle tailpipe emissions, seeking to spur U.S. auto makers to generate two-thirds of their sales through electric vehicles in a decade. The new standards for light-duty vehicles, announced...
Environmental Economics: OIRA has released its proposed revisions to OMB Circular No. A-4 and the comment period is open
From Richard L. Revesz, Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs via a Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis email blast: I am excited to share with you that the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has released its proposed revisions to OMB Circular No. A-4: Regulatory Analysis. The preamble to...
Environmental Economics: And you thought your Recreation.gov user fees were funding National Parks
Nope (As National Parks Visits Surge, Booz Allen Benefits): Visitors driving into Montana’s Glacier National Park this summer must buy a vehicle pass on Recreation.gov. The pass is free, but visitors pay a $2 fee to book the reservation. Visitors might assume that, like entrance fees, the reservation charges help...
Environmental Economics: I ran Sarah Jacobson's "Ore Money Ore Problems" resource extraction game in class yesterday @SarahJacobsonEc
Here is the abstract from the paper which is forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Education: Economic theories of the exploitation of depletable natural resources are built around a core model of intertemporal profit maximization that predicts that (barring unforeseen shocks) scarcity crises will not arise because forward looking resource...
Environmental Economics: Why do we keep getting the price of driving is wrong?
For years I have railed about the need to get the price of driving right (too many posts to find and link, but here's a good one). Why, oh, why I cry, do we still keep finding needlessly complicated ways to confuse the f*** out of drivers who just want...
Environmental Economics: We're doomed: part 189
Or, at least salmon are doomed. From the NY Times (California Salmon Stocks Are Crashing. A Fishing Ban Looks Certain): This week, officials are expected to shut down all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off California for 2023. Much will be canceled off neighboring Oregon, too. The reason: An alarming...
Environmental Economics: OPEC+ teaches us that demand curves are downward sloping
From the NYTimes (In Surprise, OPEC Plus Announces Cut in Oil Production): Saudi Arabia, Russia and their oil-producing allies announced on Sunday that they would cut production by more than 1.2 million barrels of crude a day, or more than 1 percent of world supplies, in an apparent effort to...
Environmental Economics: Hatchery supported trout waters open Saturday*
From the local paper (Hatchery supported trout waters to open April 1): The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will open approximately 1,000 miles of Hatchery Supported Trout Waters at 7 a.m. on April 1. The season will run through Feb. 29, 2024. The Wildlife Commission has posted the full Hatchery Supported...
Environmental Economics: Bold move to ask @Jeem_Tweets to serve as a referee
The editor of Marine Resource Economics is also on this list. Are there any other editors that you'd think might get a pass or turn down most every referee request? I wonder how many papers these folks review for other journals?
Environmental Economics: Jason Shogren is in Boone today
He'll be presenting "Cooperation under oath: A case for context-dependent preferences" (with Joao Vaz) at 2 pm today (the link to the paper isn't working but I've sent an email to try to get it fixed). Here is the "research highlights" video from his webpage: The best part about the...
Environmental Economics: I think my future boss is telling me I have been doing things wrong my whole career.
Important new discussion paper from a star-studded cast of environmental and resource economists*... ...on the need for the environmental economics discipline to take better care in considering the systemic issues of race and justice in our research published by Resources for the Future: Our paper argues that systemic racism is...
Environmental Economics: Have y'all seen the Partha Dasgutha video from the @nytimes yet?
Here is the link and story: Partha Dasgupta is a Cambridge University economist who in 2021 prepared a more than 600-page report for the British government about the financial value of nature. Not your average bedtime reading. But believe us when we say his report, the culmination of decades of...
Environmental Economics: Bad Graph Interpretation of the Day: Well, if I had to guess, I would say bad math happened.
Saw this tweet this morning with 2.3M views: Just eyeballing it, from 1995-2000, boy suicide rates fell from about 11 to about 6 per 100K, a 45% decline. Girl suicide rates fell from about 4 to about 2 per 100K, a 50% decline. Correspondingly, the overall suicide rates fell from...
Environmental Economics: Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis: "Benefit-Cost Analysis for Beginners" workshop
From the inbox: Location: Via Zoom Please note: All workshops will be recorded. Registrants will have access to the recordings. Dates and Times: April 28, 2023 - Online 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET This short course provides an introduction for “beginners” who have...
Environmental Economics: Adaptation to climate change at Northwestern North Carolina ski resorts
From the local paper (Changing climates means changing ski season): Snowfall in the High Country is around 25 percent less than the long-term average, according to data from local meteorologist Ray Russell of Ray’s Weather Center. However, local ski resorts only need to maintain cold temperatures for a successful season....
Environmental Economics: If the WIllow Project is approved and fewer people know about it, are the environmental costs reduced?
One of the big problems of nonmarket valuation of projects that impact the environment is that the benefits and costs from the project depend on how many people know about it. US government officials are expected to make a decision on one of the biggest US oil projects in decades...
Environmental Economics: Some bad economics at the Department of Energy
From E&E News (DOE: Major LNG project ‘would not increase’ CO2) from June 2022: A proposed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska would not raise greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new federal environmental review that assumes LNG exports elsewhere will continue to meet demand even if the planned pipeline...
Environmental Economics: Last week I began a research project for @FoothillsOfNC
On the Monday of spring break I drove to Morganton, NC and visited Oak Hill Community Park and Forest: Located 10 minutes from downtown Morganton, the park will be a hub for outdoor recreation, education, agriculture and archaeological exploration for Morganton residents and visitors. Foothills Conservancy's Executive Director Andrew Kota...
Environmental Economics: Today's example of how the critics of environmental regulations ignore the benefits: Clean Neighbor Rule
From the NYTimes (E.P.A. Tells Dozens of States to Clean Up Their Smokestacks): The Biden administration on Wednesday finalized a rule forcing factories and power plants in 23 Western and Midwestern states to sharply cut smog-causing pollution that is released from their smokestacks and fouls the air in Eastern states....
Environmental Economics: Our article in the Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy's "sizing up survey samples" symposium (?) is published online
This paper resulted from the BP/Deepwater Horizon damage assessment conducted for the state of Florida (Huffaker, Clouwer and Larkin 2012). We used the Knowledge Networks (KN) internet panel for the sample (besides me, the authors are Andrew Ropicki, John Loomis, Sherry Larkin, Tim Haab, and Sergio Alvarez). At one point...
Environmental Economics: The NYT's Willow article allows issue advocates to alternately assume perfectly elastic demand and supply
The decision to allow mining in Alaska is controversial (Biden Administration Expected to Move Ahead on a Major Oil Project in Alaska): In one of its most consequential climate decisions, the Biden administration is planning to greenlight an enormous $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska,...