Who Wins in an Energy Boom? Evidence from Wage Rates and Housing

This paper presents evidence on the distributional effects of energy extraction by examining the recent U.S. energy boom. The boom increased local wage rates in almost every major occupational category. The increase occurred regardless of whether the occupation experienced a corresponding change in employment, suggesting a more competitive labor market that benefited local workers. Local housing values and rental prices both increased, thereby benefiting landowners. For renters, the increase in prices was completely offset by a contemporaneous increase in income. The results indicate that bans on drilling have negative monetary consequences for a large share of local residents

MAESTRI Toolkit for Industrial Symbiosis: overview, lessons learnt and implications

This paper presents a structured approach to support the development of self-organized industrial symbiosis, the Toolkit for Industrial Symbiosis. Developed within MAESTRI project, it provides a set of tools and methods to help companies gain value from wasted resources and contributes to MAESTRI goal of advancing the sustainability of European manufacturing and process industry. A participatory approach was taken for its development. The ultimate objective of this work is to encourage companies to change their attitude and consider waste as a resource and potential source for value creation

Are Building Codes Effective at Saving Energy? Evidence from Residential Billing Data in Florida

In response to the 1973 oil embargo, many states began passing building energy codes in order to promote energy efficiency. While the vast majority of states have energy codes in place, policymakers are now attempting to legislate energy codes at the federal level to help address more recent concerns about energy efficiency and climate change. Nevertheless, surprisingly little is known about whether energy codes are an effective way to reduce energy consumption in practice. This paper provides the first evaluation of an energy-code change that uses residential billing data on both electricity and natural gas, combined with data on observable characteristics of each residence. The study takes place in Gainesville, Florida, and the empirical strategy is based on comparisons between residences constructed just before and just after Florida increased the stringency of its energy code in 2002. We find that the increased stringency of the energy code is associated with a 4-percent decrease in electricity consumption and a 6-percent decrease in natural-gas consumption. The pattern of savings is consistent with reduced consumption of electricity for air-conditioning and reduced consumption of natural gas for heating. We also estimate economic costs and benefits and find that the private payback period for the average residence is 6.4 years. The social payback period, which accounts for the avoided costs of air-pollution emissions, ranges between 3.5 and 5.3 years.

The Behavioral Response to Voluntary Provision of an Environmental Public Good

This paper develops a theory of voluntary provision of a public good in which a household’s decision to engage in a form of environmentally friendly behavior is based on the desire to offset another behavior that is environmentally harmful. The model generates predictions about (1) participation in a green-electricity program at the extensive and intensive margins, and (2) changes in electricity consumption in response to participation. We test the theory using billing data for participants and nonparticipants in a green-electricity program in Memphis, Tennessee. High-consumption households are more likely to participate, and they participate at higher levels. In terms of a behavioral response, households participating above the minimum threshold level do not change electricity consumption, but those participating at the minimum threshold increase electricity consumption 2.5 percent after enrolling in the program. The result is based on identification strategies that exploit before–after differences between participants and nonparticipants, and differences in the timing of enrollment among participants only. Despite the increase in electricity demand upon the purchase of green electricity for the households with a ‘‘buy-in’’ mentality, the net effect for the buy-in households is a reduction in pollution emissions, as the behavioral response is not large enough to offset the environmental benefit of the green-electricity purchase

Superconductivity and Density Wave in the Quasi-One-Dimensional Systems: Renormalization Group Study

The anisotropic superconductivity and the density wave have been investigated by applying the Kadanoff-Wilson renormalization group technique to the quasi-one-dimensional system with finite-range interactions. It is found that a temperature (T) dependence of response functions is proportional to exp(1/T) in a wide region of temperature even within the one-loop approximation. Transition temperatures are calculated to obtain the phase diagram of the quasi-one-dimensional system, which is compared with that of the pure-one-dimensional system. Next-nearest neighbor interactions (V_2) induce large charge fluctuations, which suppress the d_{x^2 -y^2}-wave singlet superconducting (dSS) state and enhance the f-wave triplet superconducting (fTS) state. From this effect, the transition temperature of fTS becomes comparable to that of dSS for large V_2, so that field-induced f-wave triplet pairing could be possible. These features are discussed to comprehend the experiments on the (TMTSF)_2PF_6 salt.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Effects of Spin Fluctuations in Quasi-One-Dimensional Organic Superconductors

We study the electronic states of quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors using the single band Hubbard model at half-filling. We treat the effects of the on-site Coulomb interaction by the fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) method, and calculate the phase diagram and physical properties. The calculated pressure dependence of the Neel temperature coincides well with the experimental one. We also show that a pseudogap is formed in the density of states near the chemical potential and that d-wave superconductivity appears next to the antiferromagnetic state. Moreover the NMR relaxation rate increases on cooling in the low-temperature region.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to apprear in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Spin-Density-Wave Phase Transitions in Quasi-One-Dimensional Dimerized Quarter-Filled Organic Conductors

We have studied spin density wave (SDW) phase transitions in dimerized quarter-filled Hubbard chains weakly coupled via interchain one-particle hopping, $t_{b0}$. It is shown that there exists a critical value of $t_{b0}$, $t_{b}^\ast$, between the incoherent metal regime ($t_{b0}<t_{b}^\ast$) and the Fermi liquid regime ($t_{b0}>t_{b}^\ast$) in the metallic phase above the SDW transition temperature. By using the 2-loop perturbative renormalization-group approach together with the random-phase-approximation, we propose a SDW phase diagram covering both of the regimes. The SDW phase transition from the incoherent metal phase for $t_{b0}<t_{b}^\ast$ is caused by growth of the intrachain electron-electron umklapp scattering toward low temperatures, which is regarded as preformation of the Mott gap. We discuss relevance of the present result to the SDW phase transitions in the quasi-one-dimensional dimerized quarter-filled organic conductors, (TMTTF)$_2$X and (TMTSF)$_2$X.Comment: 19 pages, 13 eps figures, uses jpsj.sty, corrected typo in the text and figures, no changes to the paper, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 68, No.8 (1999

Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data

A search for high-energy neutrinos interacting within the IceCube detector between 2010 and 2012 provided the first evidence for a high-energy neutrino flux of extraterrestrial origin. Results from an analysis using the same methods with a third year (2012-2013) of data from the complete IceCube detector are consistent with the previously reported astrophysical flux in the 100 TeV - PeV range at the level of $10^{-8}\, \mathrm{GeV}\, \mathrm{cm}^{-2}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}\, \mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ per flavor and reject a purely atmospheric explanation for the combined 3-year data at $5.7 \sigma$. The data are consistent with expectations for equal fluxes of all three neutrino flavors and with isotropic arrival directions, suggesting either numerous or spatially extended sources. The three-year dataset, with a livetime of 988 days, contains a total of 37 neutrino candidate events with deposited energies ranging from 30 to 2000 TeV. The 2000 TeV event is the highest-energy neutrino interaction ever observed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by PRL. The event catalog, event displays, and other data tables are included after the final page of the article. Changed from the initial submission to reflect referee comments, expanding the section on atmospheric backgrounds, and fixes offsets of up to 0.9 seconds in reported event times. Address correspondence to: J. Feintzeig, C. Kopper, N. Whitehor

Search for Prompt Neutrino Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts with IceCube

We present constraints derived from a search of four years of IceCube data for a prompt neutrino flux from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). A single low-significance neutrino, compatible with the atmospheric neutrino background, was found in coincidence with one of the 506 observed bursts. Although GRBs have been proposed as candidate sources for ultra-high energy cosmic rays, our limits on the neutrino flux disfavor much of the parameter space for the latest models. We also find that no more than $\sim1\%$ of the recently observed astrophysical neutrino flux consists of prompt emission from GRBs that are potentially observable by existing satellites.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory: Instrumentation and Online Systems

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer-scale high-energy neutrino detector built into the ice at the South Pole. Construction of IceCube, the largest neutrino detector built to date, was completed in 2011 and enabled the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. We describe here the design, production, and calibration of the IceCube digital optical module (DOM), the cable systems, computing hardware, and our methodology for drilling and deployment. We also describe the online triggering and data filtering systems that select candidate neutrino and cosmic ray events for analysis. Due to a rigorous pre-deployment protocol, 98.4% of the DOMs in the deep ice are operating and collecting data. IceCube routinely achieves a detector uptime of 99% by emphasizing software stability and monitoring. Detector operations have been stable since construction was completed, and the detector is expected to operate at least until the end of the next decade.Comment: 83 pages, 50 figures; updated with minor changes from journal review and proofin