E15 Demand and Small Refinery Waivers: A Battle over Long-Run Market Share

If you follow news around the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), you have probably heard about small refinery exemptions (SREs) and E15. E15 is a small market—just over half of one percent of gas stations in the United States sell the fuel (RFA 2019). Meanwhile, SREs reduced the total RFS mandates by over four billion gallons from 2016 to 2018 (Irwin 2019). In this article, I argue that the battle over E15 is intricately related to SREs beyond the ‘great compromise’ the Trump administration is selling to the ethanol and oil industries

Spillovers from Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Water and Energy Use

This paper provides experimental evidence that behavioral interventions spill over to untreated sectors by altering consumer choice. We use a randomized controlled trial and high-frequency data to test the eect of social norms messaging about residential water use on electricity consumption. Messaging induces a 1.3 to 2.2% reduction in summertime electricity use. Empirical tests and household survey data support the hypothesis that this nudge alters electricity choices. An engineering simulation suggests that complementarities between appliances that use water and electricity can explain only 26% of the electricity reduction. Incorporating the cross-sectoral spillover increases the cost-eectiveness of the intervention by 62%

Testimony Before the U.S. House Committee onEnergy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment

My testimony focuses on the purpose and operation of Renewable Identification Numbers, better known as RINs, as the compliance mechanism for meeting the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates. In particular, my remarks emphasize RINs\u27 accounting and economic role under the RFS, as well as summarize the empirical evidence on RIN price determinants and their impact on downstream fuel prices. I also address the potential effects of certain proposed changes to the RFS on RIN prices, and their implications for future biofuel use in the United States

Efficient Environmental Regulation in the Unconventional Oil Industry

US OIL production has skyrocketed since 2007. Technological advances in oil and gas drilling (commonly referred to as ‘fracking’) have allowed producers to access vast petroleum reserves that were previously too costly to recover. The growth in oil and gas production from unconventional sources has been tremendous, so that unconventional sources now make up more than 50 percent of total US petroleum production (EIA 2015). While this represents a boost to job growth and the broader economy, growth in the oil industry comes with its fair share of problems. Academics and news agencies have documented a host of costs associated with new oil and gas production— groundwater pollution, oil spills, large “man camps” and increased crime, and even increases in traffic accidents and exploding train cars. Some of these costs were seen in Iowa with the contentious nature of right-of- Efficient Environmental Regulation in the Unconventional Oil Industry way issues associated with building out the Dakota Access pipeline across the state. Farmers and environmentalists alike are bound together in their concern for right-of-way, human rights concerns, and environmental issues

Fuel Subsidy Pass-Through and Market Structure: Evidence from the Renewable Fuel Standard

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is among the largest renewable energy mandates in the world. The policy is enforced using tradeable credits that implicitly subsidize biofuels and tax fossil fuels. The RFS relies on these taxes and subsidies to be passed through to consumers to stimulate demand for biofuels and decrease demand for gasoline and diesel. Using station-level prices for E85 (a high-ethanol blend fuel) from over 450 retail fuel stations, we show that pass-through of the ethanol subsidy is, on average, complete. However, we find that full pass-through takes four to six weeks and that local market structure of gasoline stations influences both the speed and overall level of pass-through

Environmental Regulation of Hog Feeding Operations

THE US livestock industry has experienced drastic structural changes over the last two decades. The industry has shifted towards greater specialization across production phases, increased reliance on off-farm inputs such as feed, and increased use of production contracts (McBride and Key 2013). One trend that is particularly relevant to Iowa policymakers, farmers, and rural Iowans is the increased prevalence, size, and regional intensity of large, enclosed hog feeding operations. Where many of the largest hog-producing states have seen modest increases or even declines in total hog inventories over time, Iowa has seen a steady increase in inventories since 1982 (Figure 1a). Within Iowa, production concentrates in north-central and northwestern counties (Figure 1b)

Costs of Inefficient Regulation: Evidence from the Bakken

Efficient pollution regulation equalizes marginal abatement costs across sources. Here we study a new flaring regulation in North Dakota\u27s oil and gas industry and document its efficiency. Exploiting detailed well-level data, we find that the regulation reduced flaring 4 to 7 percentage points and accounts for up to half of the observed flaring reductions since 2015. We construct firm-level marginal flaring abatement cost curves and find that the observed flaring reductions could have been achieved at 20%lower cost by imposing a tax on flared gas equal to current public lands royalty rates instead of using firm-specific flaring requirements

E15 and E85 Demand Under RIN Price Caps and an RVP Waiver

•A leading Renewable Fuel Standard reform proposal considered by policymakers would allow E15 (fuel containing 15% ethanol) sales throughout the year and implement a cap on D6 RIN prices between $0.10 to$0.20/RIN. •While year-round sales of E15 would encourage retailers to sell the fuel, capping D6 RIN prices would reduce consumption of E15 and E85. •A cap on D6 RIN prices between $0.10/gal to$0.20/gal would likely reduce the effective ethanol mandate from 15 billion gallons to about 14.3 billion gallons in 2018. •Unless increased ethanol exports compensate for the reduced mandate, corn prices woulddecrease under the proposal’s D6 RIN price cap