Energy-Based Economic Development

The fields of economic development and energy policy and planning have converged in recent years to form an emerging discipline, which we term “energy-based economic development” (EBED). Despite the significant amount of stimulus funds, as well as state and local funding, that are being allocated to EBED initiatives in the United States, the emerging discipline has received scant attention in the energy, policy, and development literature. The link between energy and economic development in the literature is still theoretical, mostly focused on the need for and the potential benefits of EBED, and rarely applied. Furthermore, funding for EBED has outpaced understanding of the discipline, development of rigorous technical approaches, and meaningful ways to measure impact. Such information would not only help practitioners and policymakers more thoroughly understand the confines of the discipline and shape goals and approaches accordingly, but it would also help researchers identify, track, and evaluate a variety of activities in the field. With national and international attention focused on the convergence of these fields, researchers and practitioners have a rare opportunity to develop and implement the tools necessary to evaluate and communicate the potentially broader impacts that EBED may hold for society. If ways to leverage and sustain the injection of funds in this discipline are not identified, the opportunity may end before we can achieve either energy policy or economic development goals. In an attempt to respond to this need, this analysis explores the connection between energy and economic development, beginning with a review of the trends in each field and the goals that each seeks to achieve. On the basis of this information, we define the discipline of EBED, review the existing literature on it, and offer insights and perspectives on its emergence

Energy-based economic development

The fields of economic development and energy policy and planning have converged in recent years to form an emerging discipline, which we term “energy-based economic development” (EBED). Despite the significant amount of stimulus funds, as well as state and local funding, that are being allocated to EBED initiatives in the United States, the emerging discipline has received scant attention in the energy, policy, and development literature. The link between energy and economic development in the literature is still theoretical, mostly focused on the need for and the potential benefits of EBED, and rarely applied. Furthermore, funding for EBED has outpaced understanding of the discipline, development of rigorous technical approaches, and meaningful ways to measure impact. Such information would not only help practitioners and policymakers more thoroughly understand the confines of the discipline and shape goals and approaches accordingly, but it would also help researchers identify, track, and evaluate a variety of activities in the field. With national and international attention focused on the convergence of these fields, researchers and practitioners have a rare opportunity to develop and implement the tools necessary to evaluate and communicate the potentially broader impacts that EBED may hold for society. If ways to leverage and sustain the injection of funds in this discipline are not identified, the opportunity may end before we can achieve either energy policy or economic development goals. In an attempt to respond to this need, this analysis explores the connection between energy and economic development, beginning with a review of the trends in each field and the goals that each seeks to achieve. On the basis of this information, we define the discipline of EBED, review the existing literature on it, and offer insights and perspectives on its emergence

Energy-based economic development

The fields of economic development and energy policy and planning have converged in recent years to form an emerging discipline, which we term "energy-based economic development" (EBED). Despite the significant amount of stimulus funds, as well as state and local funding, that are being allocated to EBED initiatives in the United States, the emerging discipline has received scant attention in the energy, policy, and development literature. The link between energy and economic development in the literature is still theoretical, mostly focused on the need for and the potential benefits of EBED, and rarely applied. Furthermore, funding for EBED has outpaced understanding of the discipline, development of rigorous technical approaches, and meaningful ways to measure impact. Such information would not only help practitioners and policymakers more thoroughly understand the confines of the discipline and shape goals and approaches accordingly, but also help researchers identify, track, and evaluate a variety of activities in the field. With national and international attention focused on the convergence of these fields, researchers and practitioners have a rare opportunity to develop and implement the tools necessary to evaluate and communicate the potentially broader impacts that EBED may hold for society. If ways to leverage and sustain the injection of funds in this discipline are not identified, the opportunity may end before we can achieve either energy policy or economic development goals. In an attempt to respond to this need, this analysis explores the connection between energy and economic development, beginning with a review of the trends in each field and the goals that each seeks to achieve. On the basis of this information, we define the discipline of EBED, review the existing literature on it, and offer insights and perspectives on its emergence.Energy policy Energy planning Economic development Stimulus funding

Get in the Zone: The Risk-Adjusted Welfare Effects of Data-Driven vs. Administrative Borders for Index Insurance Zones

Agricultural index insurance seeks to protect producers against negative shocks that are common across a prespecified area, i.e., an index insurance zone. Often, administrative boundaries are used to delineate such index insurance zones. However, administrative boundaries may not reflect relevant variations in yield over space, which can be costly for policyholders as well as the public, especially since agricultural insurance is often heavily subsidized. Increased availability of finely resolved geospatial data on agronomic conditions coupled with machine learning approaches to identify similarities promises the ability to reduce losses associated with index insurance by identifying more homogeneous zones. In this work, we examine the changes in welfare impacts of a hypothetical area-yield index insurance when redrawing zone boundaries on the basis of relevant observed agronomic conditions. Drawing upon crop cut data from over 10,000 maize fields in Kenya from 2016-2020 combined with satellite-based estimates of agronomic conditions, we examine the changes in expected utility to assess the value of data-driven and administrative insurance zones. When keeping the number of insurance zones equal to the number of administrative zones, we find that data-driven zones may offer only slightly higher risk reduction value than administrative zones. If no set number of zones are prespecified, the data-driven approach offers a flexible approach to identify an optimal number of zones that balances costs and performance. This approach can help inform program design as well as impact evaluations, as it further sheds light on trade-offs between the costs of ground sampling and zone size that can inform how to design and evaluate new programs in resource-constrained environments for maximum impact

Seeding Change to Manage Climate Change: Growing Insights from Four USDA Programs to Support Climate-Smart Agriculture

In 2022, the U.S. authorized one of the single largest investments in the history of agri- environmental programs worldwide. Among its provisions, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 directed $3billion (bn) in funding for the new Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) to promote climate-smart agricultural practices and markets across the country. Additionally, the IRA directed another$11bn to the historically oversubscribed Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and nearly $5bn to the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). This manuscript evaluates the PCSC’s added value compared to these existing programs and extracts lessons from their implementation. Using administrative data and program design documents, we assess and compare the structures and investments of each program, focusing on support for Historically Underserved Producers (HUPs). We find that past funding through EQIP, CSP, and RCPP primarily benefited states with more producers, and nearly 40% of the funds obligated in existing conservation programs supported practices that USDA already classified as climate- smart. Despite progress in enrolling more HUPs, retaining them requires addressing the disproportionate share of canceled and terminated contracts occurring among these groups. Furthermore, the shift towards partnership-style initiatives across conservation programs could enhance the impact and cost-effectiveness of funding, as well as it may unlock opportunities for Copyright 2024 by Elinor Benami, Anne Bell, Kent D. Messer, Wei Zhang, and Michael Cecil. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. more tailored agreements, particularly for tribal communities. Prior monitoring, reporting, and evaluation methods used in these programs often focus on the numbers of producers served, dollars obligated, contracts issued, or acreage covered paired with physical models used to estimate program impact. To make effective use of this unprecedented infusion of funding into conservation agriculture, however, we suggest novel, state-of-the-art evaluation techniques. Such techniques include deploying randomized experiments and leveraging project-relevant geospatial data merged with program administrative information to generate rigorous impact evaluation on producer behaviors within these programs as well as their corresponding economic and environmental impacts In so doing, this funding offers the chance to help build the evidence-base for strategic use of future conservation funding as well as help de-risk future investments for other types of financial services—thereby accelerating the transformation to sustainable agri- food systems in the US and beyond

Ribosomal Antibiotics: Contemporary Challenges

Most ribosomal antibiotics obstruct distinct ribosomal functions. In selected cases, in addition to paralyzing vital ribosomal tasks, some ribosomal antibiotics are involved in cellular regulation. Owing to the global rapid increase in the appearance of multi-drug resistance in pathogenic bacterial strains, and to the extremely slow progress in developing new antibiotics worldwide, it seems that, in addition to the traditional attempts at improving current antibiotics and the intensive screening for additional natural compounds, this field should undergo substantial conceptual revision. Here, we highlight several contemporary issues, including challenging the common preference of broad-range antibiotics; the marginal attention to alterations in the microbiome population resulting from antibiotics usage, and the insufficient awareness of ecological and environmental aspects of antibiotics usage. We also highlight recent advances in the identification of species-specific structural motifs that may be exploited for the design and the creation of novel, environmental friendly, degradable, antibiotic types, with a better distinction between pathogens and useful bacterial species in the microbiome. Thus, these studies are leading towards the design of “pathogen-specific antibiotics,” in contrast to the current preference of broad range antibiotics, partially because it requires significant efforts in speeding up the discovery of the unique species motifs as well as the clinical pathogen identification