1,721,019 research outputs found
Cap-and-trade policy: The influence on investments in carbon dioxide reducing technologies in Indiana
No full textWith most of the energy produced in the state of Indiana coming from coal, the implementation of policy instruments such as cap-and-trade, which is included in the most recent climate bill, will have significant effects. This thesis provides an analysis of the effects that a cap-and-trade policy might have on the investment decisions for alternative technologies in the power plant sector in Indiana. Two economic models of representative coal-fired power plants, Gallagher (600MW) and Rockport (2600MW), are selected and used to evaluate the repowering decision of a plant for several technologies: integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), wind farm combined with natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) and supercritical pulverized coal (SCPC). The firm will make its decisions based on the net present value (NPV) of cost estimates for these CO2 reducing technologies, the cost of purchasing offsets and CO 2 allowances. This model is applied to a base case and three American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 cases derived from the Energy Information Administration (EIA, 2009b). A sensitivity analysis is done on the discount rate and capital costs. The results of the study indicate that a SCPC plant without carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the least costly compliance option for both plants under all of the cases while retrofitting the existing plant with CCS is the most expensive. Gallagher\u27s three least expensive options across most scenarios were SCPC without CCS, the operation of the existing plant as is and investment in wind plus NGCC. Rockport\u27s three least expensive compliance options across most scenarios were SCPC without CCS, the operation of the existing plant as is and IGCC without CCS. For both plants, when a 12% discount rate is utilized, NPV of costs are generally lower and the operation of the existing plant technology with the aid of allowances and offsets to be in compliance is the cheapest option. If capital costs were to decrease by 30%, a SCPC without CCS would remain the least costly option to invest in for both plants, but if costs were to increase by 30% operating the existing plant as is becomes the least pricey option
Irrigation Adoption, Groundwater Demand and Policy in the U.S. Corn Belt, 2040-2070
Full text linkClimate change across the U.S. Corn Belt will significantly increase precipitation variability and temperatures by midcentury. Corn and soybean producers will seek to find strategies that may help to mitigate the potentially negative effects on yield. The adoption of irrigation technology has increased over the last several decades to improve yields in areas with insufficient rainfall, and is currently being adopted by producers who are choosing to minimize risk due to weather variability. To see if this trend in irrigation adoption has the potential to expand in the wake of climate change, this study uses weather data from four General Circulation Models (GCMs) under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 and crop yields, and water use from a crop model to evaluate the profitability of the irrigation investment. The data drives Net Present Value and internal rate of return calculations of investment in irrigation equipment for the present (1980-2005) and midcentury (2040-2070). Simulations of potential water applied for irrigated crops is also examined in contemporary and future time periods, to see how relative water demand may shift for current irrigators, and potential new irrigators. A companion online decision support tool was developed for extension audiences based on the contemporary climate data and default economic parameters developed in this thesis. The Net Present Value of irrigation investment for midcentury producers is largely driven by the yield response to irrigation by soybeans under future climate conditions. While the irrigation of corn is profitable in some locations, namely the western Corn Belt, the locations where irrigating corn is profitable in the future is largely the same as in the contemporary period. Under future weather conditions, the area where irrigating soybeans becomes profitable is greatly expanded, likely due to CO2 fertilization effects and higher temperatures in the northern Corn Belt. Projected irrigation water demand increases across the entire Corn Belt, both from a relative increase in applications from current irrigators, and an increase in the total number of irrigators across the central and eastern Corn Belt. The increase in the profitability of irrigation, and the potential increases in water demanded have important policy implications for the future, if we are to mitigate the potential impacts of climate change while ensuring water supplies are available and safe for the future
An empirical analysis of climate change perceptions and conservation tillage practices of Indiana farmers
No full textIssues involving conservation agriculture have long been fundamentally important for Midwestern farmers. With recent attention around efforts to mitigate greenhouse gases on the international and even local levels, agriculture is noted as a sector with the potential to supply carbon offsets in a cap-and-trade market. Conservation tillage is a proven agricultural best management practice with the potential to sequester atmospheric carbon. The motivation for this study comes in light of heightened concern about climate change and its implications for farmers and their growing conditions around the globe. With the 1994 signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and near universal acceptance of this framework today, policymakers need to be receptive to what motivates change now more than ever before. Several previous studies have proposed that perhaps the best way to inform and educate farmers and the public is to focus on the most local of concerns. This thesis attempts to determine adopter characteristics using a state-level study, as distinct from previous studies which have attempted to determine more universal determinants of adoption. A survey of Indiana farmers was designed and implemented to collect data on perceptions of climate change policies and other farm demographics in order to learn about the determinants of no-till adoption on Indiana farms. A total of 814 usable mail and internet surveys were collected from a sample of 2,000 Indiana farmers. Principal component analysis was performed on two separate sets of questions within the survey and a series of logit regression models were estimated to understand no-till adoption. Results suggest that older farmers, larger farm sizes, the southern region of Indiana, and proximity to information via social networks were among the most significant factors leading to adoption
The economics of cellulosic biofuels: Farm to fuel cost analysis of the supply chain
No full textCellulosic biofuels have become an important source of renewable energy. The 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard is to achieve 36 billion gallons in 2022, of which 16 billion gallons are cellulosic biofuels. With the force of mandate and the potential benefits, people are paying increased attention to cellulosic biofuels. However there is no commercial cellulosic biofuel plant to date and there is significant uncertainty about the costs of producing feedstocks and biofuels themselves. Economic analysis of these elements of the supply chain of cellulosic biofuels is needed to understand this uncertainty with a view towards expansion of cellulosic biofuels to meet the mandate. This research studies four feedstocks representing two types of crops: the annual crops corn stover and sorghum, and the perennial grasses switchgrass and miscanthus. Biochemical and thermochemical conversion technologies are also studied. Combining data from field experiments and existing studies in the literature, the farmgate and delivered feedstock cost, and the breakeven fuel price are obtained for each combination of feedstock and conversion pathway. This study also designs a moisture penalty charged by the biorefinery to the farmers based on the cost of drying biomass to the level required by the conversion pathways considered. Corn stover is found to be the lowest cost feedstock and the thermochemical conversion pathway costs less than the biochemical pathway. A high biomass sorghum variety and perennial grasses planted on pasture land are additional suggested feedstocks in order to meet the Renewable Fuels Standard at the lowest cost. The impacts of uncertainties associated with the parameters biomass yield and fertilization costs are found to be the most important parameters determining breakeven cost of production. In addition, the moisture content of the delivered biomass also has impact on the costs
Using carbon offsets to fund agricultural conservation practices in a working-lands setting
No full textThe nitrogen cascade concept indicates that agriculture serves as a significant link between emissions of the potent greenhouse gas (GHG) nitrous oxide and losses of nitrate to surface waters. Conservation practices have the potential to exploit this link, as their implementation is found to reduce fluxes of GHGs and nonpoint source (NPS) water pollution. Several studies have recognized this link and have documented the potential to improve environmental quality through the use of programs which retire land, the funding for which can be offset by the sale of carbon credits. However, the ability to use land for both agricultural production and environmental conservation is important. As such, this study examines the intensely-farmed Wildcat Creek Watershed in West-Central Indiana to evaluate the potential for implementing agricultural conservation practices to reduce NPS water pollutants and fluxes of GHGs in a working-lands setting. The extent to which carbon pricing can affect practice implementation costs and the optimal distribution of these practices throughout the watershed is also explored. Results from this study indicate that carbon offsets can sharply reduce conservation practice implementation costs and therefore have the potential to reduce greater amounts of NPS pollution for a given cost of implementation. However, the extent to which various practices can be used to abate NPS pollutants and GHGs is heavily dependent on the implementation period considered. Further, this study found that fertilizer management, which is relatively difficult to enforce in practice, significantly influenced the optimal allocation of practices. This study provides a novel framework for analyzing the impacts of conservation practices that may prove useful in formulating innovative policy tools aimed at improving environmental quality in multiple environmental media. The findings of this study indicate that the potential exists to use carbon offsets to improve water quality and reduce GHG fluxes in a working-lands setting
Profit-maximizing responses to climate change in commodity agriculture: Does adaptation matter?
Full text linkAccumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has led to rising temperatures, and is expected to lead to a change in climate. Crop yields are vulnerable to these changes. Adaptation is expected to be key to combating climate change impacts, but the effectiveness of adaptation strategies is not well understood. Hence, there is a need to assess the impacts of climate change on agriculture and devise profitable adaptation strategies to combat its effects. This study uses historical and three projected climate data sets to simulate yields using the crop model Daycent, empirical relationships between weather and agronomic variables that influence farm management decisions, and a linear optimization model (Purdue Crop/Livestock Linear Program, PCLP-GAMS) to: 1) Provide an integrated assessment of the farm-level impacts of climate change; 2) Identify farm-level adaptation practices and estimate their cost; and 3) Solve for profit-maximizing crop rotations and management adaptations. This approach is applied to a representative corn and soybean farm for a case study located outside Rensselaer, Indiana The extent and direction of climate change impacts depend on climate projections and crops. The NCAR projection is associated with an increase in corn yields into the future whereas GFDL and UKMO projections lead to a decrease in corn yield. Soybean yields increase for all future projections. Among the adaptation practices considered, irrigation, split application of fertilizer, rotating corn with soybeans and switching to continuous no-till were found to have a positive influence on corn yield. Soybean yields, although affected by a changing climate, do not respond to the adaptation practices simulated. Economic optimization results suggest that there is the potential to slightly increase net income with the adoption of some adaptation practices investigated in the 2041-2070 mid-century period. The study provides a holistic framework to analyze the agronomic and economic impacts of climate change and associated adaptation practices that are more complete than previous research. The results are helpful for farmers, crop advisors and policy makers struggling to understand the impact of a changing climate on commodity agriculture and identify economically viable adaptation strategies
A spatially explicit watershed scale optimization of cellulosic biofuels production
Full text linkAs environmental deterioration and global warming arouses more and more attention, identifying cleaner and more environmentally friendly energy sources is of interest to society. In addition to environmental concerns, both the high price of gasoline and the fact that the United States has heavy reliance on petroleum imports has driven policymakers to find alternative energy sources. Producing biofuels from energy crops is one such alternative. They can result in relatively lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional energy sources. Up to now, corn grain is the most researched energy crop. Cellulosic perennial crops such as switchgrass, miscanthus and fast growing trees are also promising energy crops and are expected to help with the energy supply. The 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard requires 16 billion gallons of a total of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be cellulosic biofuels by 2022. Many studies are being done to evaluate costs and feasibility of different potential feedstocks and the first commercial-scale cellulosic biorefinery is scheduled to begin operation in 2014. This study estimates the costs of two dedicated cellulosic biofuel crops, switchgrass and miscanthus, makes comparisons with corn stover, and develops a Matlab program that uses a Genetic Algorithm to minimize production cost subject to production and pollution constraints for the Wildcat Creek Watershed in Indiana, USA. Results indicate that if the biorefinery fuelshed is limited to the boundary of the watershed, miscanthus must be planted to achieve the minimum amount of biomass production required (1,307,065 metric tons per year under thermochemical conversion) while also reducing pollutant levels (total sediment, N and P). Switchgrass has similar environmental advantages but higher cost given the crop parameterizations assumed in the accompanying Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT model) simulations. Corn stover production is the cheapest among all three bio feedstocks considered and would minimize delivered feedstock cost for a biorefinery if the fuelshed is not limited to the watershed boundary. Pollutant loadings from corn stover removal scenarios vary, but they all result in higher water pollution than perennial grasses under the assumed management (tillage, nutrient replacement, stover removal rate, etc.). There is a clear tradeoff between cost and environmental quality when satisfying the Renewable Fuel Standard using different feedstocks
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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