A greenhouse gas goes underground:
John K. Borchardt Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor.
Christian Science Monitor Boston, Mass.:October 28, 2004. p. 14 ,
www.csmonitor.com
By injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the underground oil
field, researchers are not only cutting emissions of the greenhouse
gas, they're also boosting oil production. The extra oil generates
enough revenue to substantially offset the cost of burying the
CO2. While underground storage of CO2 won't solve the problem of
global warming by itself, it could dramatically reduce the amount of
heat-trapping greenhouse gases spewing into the atmosphere, experts
say. It's already part of President Bush's energy plan. And the idea is
gaining momentum in other parts of the world.
A $28 million demonstration project in Saskatchewan began in 2000 to
investigate the feasibility of storing CO2 in the 44-year- old Weyburn
Field. The CO2 is shipped in via a 220-mile pipeline from the Dakota
Gasification Company's plant in Beulah, N.D. (The plant converts coal
to clean-burning natural gas.). The pressure created by injection
of the gas into the permeable rock drives more crude oil to the
production wells. In addition, the injected CO2 emulsifies and
partially dissolves the crude, allowing it to flow more easily to the
production wells. This process produces additional oil, which offsets
the costs of separating CO2 from industrial smokestack gases,
transporting it, and pumping it deep underground. These costs are
substantial, about $30 per ton of CO2. (The US Department of Energy is
funding research to reduce separation costs to $8 a ton.). About
21 million tons will be injected over the 25 years of the project.
Saskatchewan's oil fields are large enough to store all the province's
carbon-dioxide emissions over the next 30 years, according to the
research center, which manages the Weyburn project. In addition,
oil production at the field has increased 50 percent since CO2
injection began four years ago. The project aims to recover an
additional 130 million barrels of oil worth over $5 billion.
The US Department of Energy is planning a similar project in Wyoming.
The 10,000-acre Teapot Dome oil field would store CO2 piped in from a
natural-gas processing plant more than 300 miles away. For more
than 20 years, CO2 injections have helped recover hundreds of millions
of barrels of oil from old west Texas fields that otherwise could not
be produced economically. But the CO2 used in these projects comes from
deposits deep underground. So there is no net reduction in greenhouse
gasses. Under Mr. Bush's energy plan, power plants would capture
90 percent of their emissions for underground storage by 2012. Since
the plants are a major producer of CO2, the plan would reduce by about
40 percent the 1.6 billion tons of CO2 the US emits annually, about
one-quarter of the world's total.
The New Wealth of Nations
Amos Esty. American Scientist Research Triangle
Park:November/December 2004. Vol. 92, Iss. 6, p. 513,
www.americanscientist.org
In 1972, the king of the Butan declared that his country's
development should be measured not by purely economic indicators such
as gross national product (GNP), but by gross national happiness
(GNH). Last February, more than 300 academics, journalists and
students enthusiastic about GNH gathered in Bhutan's capital of Thimphu
to spread their message. Ruut Veenhoven, a psychologist at Erasmus
University in the Netherlands who attended the conference in Thimphu,
has dedicated much of his career to studying measures of life
satisfaction and believes that eventually such indicators will replace
GNP. By combining surveys of life satisfaction with life-expectancy
rates, Veenhoven has devised what he terms "Happy Life Years" (HLY) to
measure levels of well-being across countries. In Canada, for example,
where the life expectancy is 78.6 and the average level of life
satisfaction is 7.63 on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high), the average
HLY would be 60 78.6 x 0.763).
Locating Hybrid Fuel Cell-Turbine Power Generation Units under
Uncertainty
Laura A. Schaefer, Andrew J. Schaefer. Annals Of Operations
Research Basel:November 2004. Vol. 132, Iss. 1-4, p.
301, http://www.kluweronline.com/issn/0254-5330
Hybrid gas turbine-solid oxide fuel cell power generation has
the potential to create a positive economic and environmental impact.
Annually, the U.S. spends over $235 billion on electricity, and
electric utilities emit 550 million metric tons of carbon. The
integration of distributed hybrid generation can reduce these emissions
and costs through increased efficiencies. In this paper, a model is
presented that minimizes the costs of distributed hybrid generation
while optimally locating the units within the existing electric
infrastructure. The model utilizes data from hybrid generation modules,
and includes uncertainty in customer demand, weather, and fuel costs.
Motor vehicle activity is growing rapidly in India and other
less-industrialized countries in Asia. This growth is contributing to
serious health and welfare effects due to vehicle emissions, and energy
insecurity, acidification and climate change. This paper applies the
problem-structuring tools of "value-focused thinking" to inform
policy-making and implementation related to this complex problem in a
difficult context, with specific reference to motorized two-wheeled
vehicles, which play an important role in transport air pollution but
also provide affordable mobility to millions with few other attractive
options. The paper describes the process used to elicit and structure
objectives and measures, based on interviews conducted by the author,
and demonstrates how the objectives and measures can be used to more
effectively characterize policy impacts, and create policy packages
that have a better chance of long-term success.
The capacity for waste incineration in Swedish municipalities is
increasing due to regulations aimed at decreasing landfill with waste.
This has a large impact on the municipal energy systems, since waste is
an important fuel for district heating production. The object of this
study is a municipality, Skovde, which is planning to build a waste
incineration plant to produce electricity and heat. The municipality is
also planning to extend the district heating grid to include a large
industrial heat consumer. The economic effect on the energy system of
these measures is analysed as well as environmental effects in terms of
carbon dioxide emissions. The consequences of two different policy
instruments, green electricity certificates and a tax on waste
incineration, are also studied. Economic optimisations show that the
advantage of co-operation with industry is twofold: lower heat
production costs and a considerable reduction of carbon dioxide
emissions. It is economically feasible to invest in a waste
incineration plant for heat production. An important measure to lower
carbon dioxide emissions is to introduce combined heat and power
production on the assumption that locally produced electricity replaces
electricity produced by coal condensing power.
A note is presented about the distinction between control costs
and damage costs for deriving a valuation of the impact of
environmental externalities. The cost of oil supply is then revisited,
in order to illustrate the substantial disparity between the 2
concepts. Using the cost of regulation to estimate the benefit is a
meaningless, circular, procedure, given that a cost-benefit ratio of
unity will always be achieved. Legislators are able to make optimal
decisions when imposing policy instruments to modify polluting
behaviour to achieve such an "optimal" outcome. Estimation of damage
costs has economic theory as its basis. Rationally, control costs
should always be less than the estimated level of damages. The actual
amount of money spent by the US on oil security is very difficult to
estimate. US defence expenditure is predicted on a number of varied
regional objectives around the globe, and assigning a marginal cost to
oil security activities in the Middle East involves a considerable
element of subjective allocation.
Importance of fear in the case of genetically modified food
Fleur J. M. Laros, Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp. Psychology
& Marketing Hoboken:November 2004. Vol. 21, Iss.
11, p. 889, www.wileyeurope.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-MAR.html
Fear appeals concerning genetically modified food (GMF)
frequently appear in the mass media. They have played a crucial role in
creating widespread fear of GMF (also known as "Frankenstein food"
among the fearful) in a large part of the world. The present study
validates a scale to measure consumers' fear of GMF and shows that
Dutch consumers feel significantly more fearful of GMF than of other
new food types. There are no strong relations between consumers'
sociodemographic makeup and fear of GMF, indicating that fear of this
technologically new type of food is an emotion that cuts across
society. Fear of GMF is positively influenced by consumers' concern for
the environment and negatively affected by their faith in technology in
food production. Consumers who are more fearful of GMF have a more
negative attitude toward genetically modified food and toward genetic
modification of animals, and exhibit a greater interest in information
related to food production.
The Market for Transportation-Land Use Integration: Do Developers Want
Smarter Growth than Regulations Allow?
Jonathan Levine, Aseem Inam. Transportation
Amsterdam:November 2004. Vol. 31, Iss. 4, p. 409-427,
www.kluweronline.com/issn/0049-4488/
Transportation and land use research of the past decade has
focused in large part on the question of whether manipulating land uses
in the direction of "smart growth" alternatives can reduce vehicle
miles traveled (VMT) or otherwise improve travel behavior. Yet the
notion of "manipulating" land uses implies that the alternative is
somehow self-organized or market-based. This view appears to
underestimate the extent to which current planning interventions in the
United States - largely focused on lowering development densities,
mandating ample road and parking designs, and separating land uses -
impose an auto-oriented template on most new development. Rather than a
market failure, the paucity of "smart growth" alternatives may be a
planning failure - the result of municipal regulatory exclusion. This
problem definition would shift the burden of proof for policy reform,
as uncertainty in travel-behavior benefits would hardly justify the
continuation of exclusionary regulations. If municipal regulations in
fact constrain alternatives to low-density, auto-oriented development,
one would expect developers to perceive unsatisfied market interest in
such development. This article studies, through a national survey (676
respondents), US developers' perceptions of the market for pedestrian-
and transit-oriented development forms. Overall, respondents perceive
considerable market interest in alternative development forms, but
believe that there is inadequate supply of such alternatives relative
to market demand. Developer-respondents attribute this gap between
supply and demand principally to local government regulation. When
asked how the relaxation of these regulations would affect their
product, majorities of developers indicated that such liberalization
would lead them to develop in a denser and more mixed-use fashion,
particularly in close-in suburban locales. Results are interpreted in
favor land-policy reform based on the expansion of choice in
transportation and land use. This view contrasts with a more prevalent
approach which conditions policy interventions on scientific evidence
of travel-behavior modification.
Energy, Hanford contractors appeal record fine ; Unknown waste shipped,
state contends
AP. Columbian Vancouver, Wash.:October 28, 2004. p. C2, www.ap.org
The U.S. Department of Energy and two contractors at the Hanford
nuclear site have appealed a record $270,000 fine issued by the state
of Washington last month. The state Department of Ecology
contends the federal government shipped unknown waste from another
nuclear site to the south- central Washington reservation. The penalty
was the largest the state has ever issued to the Energy
Department. For 40 years, the 586-square-mile Hanford reservation
made plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. Today it is
the nation's most contaminated site, with cleanup costs expected to
total $50 billion to $60 billion.
Increase in carbon emissions 'gives business extra headroom':
Fiona Harvey. Financial Times London (UK):October 28, 2004.
p. 2, www.ft.com
Businesses will be granted the right to emit more carbon dioxide
under new plans announced by the government yesterday. The plans,
if accepted by the Commission, would increase the total amount of
carbon dioxide in the UK's national allocation plan: the amount
industry will be licensed to emit. The scheme, which begins in
January, is aimed at helping the EU meet its carbon emissions reduction
target under the Kyoto protocol on climate change. Britain's
original plan was one of the first to be accepted, back in April.
The plan submitted to the European Commission in April set the UK's
ceiling at 736m tonnes. Yesterday's revised NAP would raise the ceiling
to 756m. The carbon trading scheme will cover industries judged
to be the biggest emitters of carbon, including power generation, oil
refineries, and iron, steel, cement, glass and pulp and paper
factories. Power producers account for around two-thirds of the total
carbon allocation.
Policy Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resource Management
Sylvia Brandt. American Journal Of Agricultural Economics
Malden:November 2004. Vol. 86, Iss. 4, p. 1154-1156, www.aaea.org/fund/pubs/ajae/
Marginal Property Tax Effects of Conservation Easements: a Vermont Case
Study
Jonathan R King, Christopher M Anderson. American Journal
Of Agricultural Economics Malden:November 2004. Vol. 86,
Iss. 4, p. 919-932, www.aaea.org/fund/pubs/ajae/
Phelps Dodge Corp. (NYSE: PD) reported consolidated net income
of $292.9 million, or $2.95 per share, in the 2004 third quarter of
2004 . Net income included after-tax, net special charges
totaling $0.9 million, or 1 cent per share, associated with
environmental provisions ($9.5 million) and restructuring and
impairment charges ($3.2 million); partially offset by environmental
recoveries ($6.0 million) and a net gain regarding historic legal
matters ($5.8 million).
Five McLean homeowners met with the Fairfax County Board of
Equalization (BOE) Monday night to fight their property assessments,
saying new environmental regulations reduce the amount of usable land
they own and their property taxes should be decreased. As a result of
resource protection areas (RPAs) designated by the Chesapeake Watershed
Ordinance and put into effect Nov. 18, 2003, these homeowners say their
property tax is not representative of the amount of land they own that
can be used. John Freedman of the Department of Public Works and
Environmental Services gave the BOE a brief presentation about the RPAs
before the homeowners pled their cases. “RPAs need to be designated on
all perennial streams,” Freedman said, in order to protect the
Chesapeake Bay Watershed water supply. The ordinances require a
100-foot buffer zone on either side of a perennial stream, which can be
amended or given special-exception waivers if the homeowner wants to
make improvements or build new structures on his property.
Frank Crandall said 65% of his property falls into the RPA. He
described his house as a “tear-down” property, meaning that if someone
else were to buy the land, the existing house would most likely be
taken down and a new home built. The RPA constraints would seriously
diminish the resale value of the property, he said. Chairman
James D. Lafley acknowledged the RPA did have some impact on Crandall’s
property. Lafley presented a motion to reduce Crandall’s assessment by
$30,000, “which would cover all engineering costs to tear down the
house,” he said. Board Member John Yeatman recommended that the
property assessment be reduced to $850,000, which was approved by the
board. A second homeowner, Ann Huffman outlined a five-step
process it would take to get the exceptions needed to build the pool,
at a cost of $16,000. “That’s just for the engineering costs, and
the process has no guarantee of success,” she said. Lafley
proposed a motion to reduce the assessment by $30,000 to cover
engineering fees. The motion was seconded but voted down, with no
reductions made to the assessment. The board heard an appeal from
Duane McCliggott, who said that “McMansions” were being built all
around his house, making his a “tear-down” like Crandall’s. “The
value is correct without the RPA, but the RPA is removing the most
attractive part of my five acres (from being used),” McCliggott
said. Yeatman suggested that the property value be reduced to $1
million, based on the land value alone, which was unanimously approved
by the board.
