A lot left over: Reducing CO \u3c inf\u3e 2 emissions in the United States\u27 electric power sector through the use of natural gas

As the leading contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, the electricity sector stands to be impacted by policies seeking to curtail emissions. Instead of increasing electricity from renewable resources or nuclear power facilities, an alternative approach to reducing emissions in the electric power sector is changing the dispatch order of fossil fuels. Important differences between fossil fuels, and in the technologies used to burn them, make it possible to substantially reduce emissions from the sector. On average, each gigawatt-year of electricity generation switched from coal to natural gas reduces CO 2 emissions by 59 percent. As a result of significant investments in natural gas fired power plants in the United States between 1998 and 2005, there is an opportunity for electricity producers to take advantage of underutilized capacity. This is the first study to closely examine the new capital additions and analyze the technical potential for reductions in emissions. The analysis finds that 188GW of capacity may be available to replace coal-fired baseload electricity generation. Utilizing this excess gas-fired capacity will reduce the sector\u27s CO 2 emissions by 23 to 42 percent and reduce overall U.S. CO 2 emissions between 9 percent and 17 percent. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

Do Monetary Incentives Matter in Classroom Experiments? Effects on Course Performance

Using 641 principles of economics students across four universities, the authors examine whether providing monetary incentives in a prisoner\u27s dilemma game enhances student learning as measured by a set of common exam questions. Subjects either play a two-player prisoner\u27s dilemma game for real money, play the same game with no money at stake (i.e., play a hypothetical version), or are in a control group where no game is played. The authors find strong evidence that students who played the classroom game for real money earned higher test scores than students who played the hypothetical game or where no game was played. Their findings challenge the conventional wisdom that monetary incentives are unnecessary in classroom experiments

An empirical study of the consolidation of local public health services in Connecticut

Public health, Regional consolidation, H41, H7, I18,