MORE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN SOIL CONSERVATION

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Using Cellulosic Ethanol to ‘Go Green’: What Price for Carbon?

The revised Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) mandates that cellulosic biofuels be part of the liquid transportation fuel mix and contribute to reducing our carbon footprint. Unfortunately, since no commercial cellulosic biorefinery exists and cellulosic biomass production is typically smaller scale than conventional crop production, limited knowledge exists of the actual costs of producing cellulosic biomass and converting it to cellulosic ethanol. Understanding of the implications of RFS2 requires a better understanding of the economics of producing cellulosic ethanol. We use the Biofuel Breakeven model (BIOBREAK), a simple long run breakeven model that represents the feedstock supply system and biofuel refining process, along with estimates of the potential reduction in carbon emissions from biofuels relative to conventional fuels, to derive the implicit carbon price (or carbon credit) needed to sustain a biomass market and cellulosic ethanol industry. We evaluate BIOBREAK under different oil prices, the RFS2 mandate, and with and without other biofuel incentives.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Biofuels, Biomass, Cellulosic Ethanol, RFS2, Carbon,

IMMIGRATION, MEAT PACKING, AND TRADE: IMPLICATIONS FOR IOWA

The paper examines changes in employment and wage patterns, industrial restructuring, and foreign competition that affect opportunities of recent immigrants to the non-metropolitan Midwest, especially to Iowa. The focus is on food and kindred products where meat and poultry packing and processing are major components. Although total employment in this industry declined between 1980 and 1990, a significant increase in employment of Hispanic- and Asian- origin persons occurred in Iowa. As unions weakened and the real wage rate declined sharply during 1980-85 in meat and poultry packing and processing, new job opportunities for recent immigrants became available. These jobs provided full-time year-round work at significantly above the minimum wage and made regular schooling for their children and frequently home ownership possible. Note: Tables are not included in the PDF file--contact the authors for more information.

Spatial Labor Markets and Technology Spillovers - Analysis from the US Midwest

In this paper we examine the relation between geographic location and innovative behavior. Knowledge spillins, as opposed to knowledge spillovers, are modeled as an externality which exists between geographically close economic agents and enters the representative inventor production function explicitly from neighboring regions. To proxy new innovative behavior and new knowledge generated we use counts of patent filings per county. The proposed geographic spillin is tested for the US Midwestern States of Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota using a newly constructed data set and implementing spatial statistical methods. The data set is comprised of primary inventor utility patent filings per county for the years 1975-2000. The results do indeed suggest spatial interaction does occur and innovative activity in surrounding counties is an important factor in explaining new innovative behavior. Further analysis also reveals lagged patenting behavior within the county also has a significant impact on patenting activity suggesting innovative externalities exist over both space and time.patents; employment growth; technology spillovers; spatial spillovers

The Pork Industry: Environmental Regulations and Competitiveness

Because of pork production\u27s increasing importance to the U.S. and world economies, questions concerning the relationship among environmental regulations, manure management practices, and production costs have arisen. The goal of this report is to discern whether competitive advantages exist in particular U.S. regions or countries. The current levels other rapidly changing environmental regulations in five key hog producing states are discussed in addition to possible geophysical and legal considerations producers have when selecting a site and deciding on a manure management practice. Existing data on production costs and manure management practices, along with a regions regulatory environment, are used to determine whether a region has a competitive advantage. The data indicates that he historical advantage of the North in hog production has diminished in recent years

Economics of Cocoa Production

Cocoa production is important to economic growth and the welfare of rural populations. Economic policy is oriented toward encouraging production, maintaining a stable cocoa price, and using cocoa sales as a source of tax revenue and foreign exchange. This chapter will concentrate on the economics of production-related issues at the farm, industry, and government levels. Special emphasis is given to constraints on the decision-making process of the cocoa producer, as well as to the existing knowledge on cocoa production economics. Rather than providing a systematic framework for decisions in cocoa production, we will consider economic insights into specific problems. The former information can be obtained from basic texts on farm management. A summary of the research evidence on specific cocoa production problems is less readily available

Economic Importance of The Iowa Egg Industry

The egg production and processing industry has a significant impact on Iowa's economy. And if consumer demand for eggs continues to increase and Iowa continues its commitment to grow the industry, expansion of Iowa's egg industry will continue.

An economic breakeven model of cellulosic feedstock production and ethanol conversion with implied carbon pricing

The objectives of this paper include: 1) developing an economic framework to estimate long run equilibrium breakeven prices that cellulosic ethanol processors can pay for the marginal or last unit of biomass feedstock they purchase and still breakeven and that cellulosic feedstock producers need to receive for supplying the last unit of feedstock delivered to a commercial-scale plant; 2) estimating the gap or difference between the biorefinery’s willingness to pay (WTP) or derived demand for the last unit of cellulosic feedstock and the suppliers’ willingness to accept (WTA) or marginal cost (MC) of supplying the last unit of feedstock; 3) completing a life-cycle analysis (LCA) of each feedstock alternative or a “well-to-wheels” accounting of the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) savings associated with feedstock-specific ethanol relative to gasoline; and 4) calculating the carbon price or credit necessary for a biofuel market to exist in the long run. The model is designed to address various policy issues related to cellulosic biofuel production, including cellulosic biofuel production costs, the cost of cellulosic feedstock production when accounting for all costs incurred, government intervention costs either through tax credits and other incentives needed to sustain biofuel markets or through mandates to achieve the revised Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS.2), and finally, the implicit price or credit for CO2e embodied in cellulosic biofuel

Biofuel Incentives and the Energy Title of the 2007 Farm Bill

Given the increased interest in biofuels and other biorenewables, a separate Energy Title is being considered for the 2007 Farm Bill. The added benefits and costs of such government intervention need to be weighed carefully. The United States has conducted an interesting social experiment with ethanol over the last three decades. The federal government and some state governments have provided incentives to increase both corn grain ethanol production and consumption to improve local air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and provide a substitute fuel from renewable resource that could serve to improve energy security. The experiment was successful, but in large part because the price of crude oil increased. Pushing this experiment further will eventually lead the added costs to outweigh the added benefits. Further expansion is typically justified on grounds of moving to biomass-based ethanol, which is purported to have even greater environmental and development benefits. The simple breakeven analyses presented in this paper seriously question the potential of biomass ethanol as a sustainable biofuel source