4 research outputs found
New England Has the Highest Increase in Income Disparity in the Nation
New England is a generally prosperous region and its residents are doing relatively well economically (see Table 1). Yet, between 1989 and 2004, the region experienced the largest increase in income inequality in the country. Much of this widening gap between rich and poor was driven by growth among the top earners, but the changes are not simply the "rich getting richer." Rather, they reflect the hollowing out of the middle caused by significant changes in the nation's economy. The loss of manufacturing employment for low-skilled workers has been coupled with increased demand, and rewards, for high-skilled and high tech employment. These shifts were more pronounced in New England because of the region's highly educated population, strong research and development base, and relatively high cost of business operations, which pushes low-skilled jobs elsewhere
Changes in income distribution in New England
Although by some measures New Englanders are doing well economically, the region has experienced the largest jump in household income inequality of all nine census divisions. The authors parse the data.Income distribution - New England
Regional Air Quality Management Aspects of Climate Change: Impact of Climate Mitigation Options on Regional Air Emissions
We
investigate the projected impact of six climate mitigation scenarios
on U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>), sulfur dioxide
(SO<sub>2</sub>), and nitrogen oxides (NO<sub>X</sub>) associated
with energy use in major sectors of the U.S. economy (commercial,
residential, industrial, electricity generation, and transportation).
We use the EPA U.S. 9-region national database with the MARKet Allocation
energy system model to project emissions changes over the 2005 to
2050 time frame. The modeled scenarios are two carbon tax, two low
carbon transportation, and two biomass fuel choice scenarios. In the
lower carbon tax and both biomass fuel choice scenarios, SO<sub>2</sub> and NO<sub>X</sub> achieve reductions largely through pre-existing
rules and policies, with only relatively modest additional changes
occurring from the climate mitigation measures. The higher carbon
tax scenario projects greater declines in CO<sub>2</sub> and SO<sub>2</sub> relative to the 2050 reference case, but electricity sector
NO<sub>X</sub> increases. This is a result of reduced investments
in power plant NO<sub>X</sub> controls in earlier years in anticipation
of accelerated coal power plant retirements, energy penalties associated
with carbon capture systems, and shifting of NO<sub>X</sub> emissions
in later years from power plants subject to a regional NO<sub>X</sub> cap to those in regions not subject to the cap
Impacts of Potential CO<sub>2</sub>‑Reduction Policies on Air Quality in the United States
Impacts of emissions changes from
four potential U.S. CO<sub>2</sub> emission reduction policies on
2050 air quality are analyzed using
the community multiscale air quality model (CMAQ). Future meteorology
was downscaled from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)
ModelE General Circulation Model (GCM) to the regional scale using
the Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) model. We use emissions growth
factors from the EPAUS9r MARKAL model to project emissions inventories
for two climate tax scenarios, a combined transportation and energy
scenario, a biomass energy scenario and a reference case. Implementation
of a relatively aggressive carbon tax leads to improved PM<sub>2.5</sub> air quality compared to the reference case as incentives increase
for facilities to install flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) and carbon
capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies. However, less capital
is available to install NO<i><sub>X</sub></i> reduction
technologies, resulting in an O<sub>3</sub> increase. A policy aimed
at reducing CO<sub>2</sub> from the transportation sector and electricity
production sectors leads to reduced emissions of mobile source NO<sub><i>X</i></sub>, thus reducing O<sub>3</sub>. Over most
of the U.S., this scenario leads to reduced PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations.
However, increased primary PM<sub>2.5</sub> emissions associated with
fuel switching in the residential and industrial sectors leads to
increased organic matter (OM) and PM<sub>2.5</sub> in some cities