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Comments

[Jonathan Pfeiffer]

I'd like to see an overview of ways of measuring economic progress that don't ignore ecological concerns. For example, what alternatives are there to indicators such as gross domestic product? (Alternatives should include indicators that somehow factor environmental data into the equations.)

[Anon]

There's an HBS case, of all things, that provides a good overview of "Green GDP." The United Nations' System of National Accounts, which presents the international standard for calculating GDP, also includes a lot of environmental accounts, as well as accounts for non-market transactions and the informal sector.

The EU and many Asian countries have developed these environmental accounts, but the U.S. is explicitly prevented from developing Green GDP by Congress.

You can buy the case for $6.50 from the HBS site:

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=703026

[Tim Haab]

Jonathan,

Great question. Thanks. I'm going to forward it to one of our contributors. Look for an answer soon (Hopefully?! You get the honor of testing out our system first).

Tim

[Rob Kirby]

Here is the reply to a letter I wrote to the NYTimes about a story they wrote in Jan 2002 about coal mine fires in China. Do you know anything more about this topic??

From anrevk@nytimes.com Mon Feb 18 05:33:59 2002

thanks for your thoughts.

because of space limitations, and the enormous scope of the issue, this
piece was focused simply on getting out what is known or estimated about
these coal fires.

the interpretation or policy analysis is for another day.

as for the facts, the estimate came from the netherlands group quoted in
the story, and it is certainly a rough approximation considering that
emissions from china are based on remote sensing of heat and then a variety
of extrapolations.

but if the 200 million tons of coal figure is remotely right, then the
comparison to American car fleet is apt.

The U.S. has more than 100 million personal cars which produce about 430
million tons of
CO2 annually.

burning 200 million tons of coal would emit far more co2 than that (rough
approx for conversion of C to CO2 is to multiply by 3.5 times)

story does bear out the importance of improving research on this issue.
(the mine fires are obviously not included in China's official tally of
emissions, which shows a drop these days)

thanks for the thoughts, and feel free to write your congressman about this.

>>From: Rob Kirby
>>Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 19:14:39 -0800 (PST)
>>To: scitimes@nytimes.com
>>
>>Dear Science Editor:
>>
>>The January 15 Science Times carried a fascinating article on coal
>>mine fires by Andrew Revkin.
>>
>>One statement in the article particularly caught my eye: "The fires
>>[in northern China] produce nearly as much carbon dioxide, ..., as is
>>emitted each year by all the cars and small trucks in the United
>>States." Apparently that caught the eye of the graphics editors also
>>for it appeared under "Environmental Effects" in the first page
>>graphics.
>>
>>But my first thought was that this was surely untrue, perhaps off by a
>>factor of 10 even. But surely Mr. Revkin would have been skeptical,
>>or your fact checkers. Is it possible that this statement, printed in
>>two places, didn't raise any eyebrows and was not checked?
>>
>>No source was given for this information, so I can't tell if the
>>source is credible.
>>
>>So let's suppose that the NYTimes Science Times is in fact right, or
>>at least not off by more than a factor of 2!
>>
>>In that case I am even more surprised, for this would be of great
>>importance in global warming. I think it is true that cars and
>>trucks produce about 25% of the carbon dioxide produced in the US. We
>>see

___________________________________
Andrew C. Revkin
Environment Reporter
The New York Times
229 W. 43d St.
NY, NY 10036

[Lauren Steely]

We keep hearing about how stronger property rights are a prerequisite to many market-based solutions to environmental problems. What is the underlying theory behind this, how is it being applied to various problems, and how will the recent Supreme Court decision on eminent domain affect these types of solutions?

What are the steps involved in cost-benefit analysis?
AJAY KR CHAKRABARTI
CALCUTTA

[Frank Ryan]

When we learn that oil futures are $60 a barrel, what does that really mean? Who pays the sixty dollars to whom, and when?

[Liz Baldwin]

What do you think of the greenhouse gas adders being used by utility regulators in California? (see http://www.platts.com/Magazines/POWER/Power%20News/2005/012005_8.xml)
These adders ask utilities to incorporate future costs (of increased restrictions on fossil fuels) into their decision-making process today. How do environmental economists view this kind of policy that asks the current generation to pay a higher price to avoid financial risk in the future?

[TFox]

Commons blog says that renewables get more subsidies than fossil fuels, and Grist says the opposite. Who's right?

[Jim Coomes]

How much does it cost to "mass produce" a gallon of ethanol? Before taxes and after taxes?

[Jim Coomes]

Can "methanol" be used to run a car?

Acording to Knowladge Problem;
The by product of the internal combustion of ethanol is formaldihyde. Is this true? What is the chemical equacion for this reaction.(I could not ballance the equation.)

What is the by product of the internal combustion of methanol? What is the chemical equasion?

[TFox]

Seeing as these questions don't look like econ questions, I'll take a hack.

Methanol can be burned as a fuel in internal combustion engines, and some race cars burn pure methanol, Indy cars, for example. There's also been research into direct methanol fuel cells, which turn methanol into electricity.

I think you're referring to this KP entry, which states that "ethanol used for fuel generates formaldehyde". This is no doubt true, as a minor byproduct (see WP formaldehyde). The main products, after complete combustion, will be CO2 and H2O, like every other fuel. The question is how much, what the atmospheric effects are, etc., particularly when added as an oxygenate to gasoline.

I don't know what the spectrum of byproducts from methanol combustion are, but they likely include formaldehyde as well. The industrial process for making formaldehyde uses methanol as a feedstock (wikipedia again).

[Jim Coomes]

TFox,

Thanks!

[Grant]

After years of lawsuits over the Federal Endangered Species Act, many Federal, State and local agencies began adopting Habitat Conservation Plans (and their related cousins Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plans) in the 1990s and the early part of this decade. To briefly summarize, a habitat conservation plan identifies “critical habitat” for an endangered or threatened species and sets forth a plan to preserve the most biologically valuable habitat while allowing development (i.e. a “taking”) to occur on more marginal habitat (More info here: http://www.fws.gov/endangered/hcp/).

While Federal law requires that these plans be analyzed for their environmental impacts, I have yet to come across a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of these conservation plans. Do you know of any economic analyses that have been prepared for habitat conservation plans?

[palge hutagaol]

I'm very happy to know about this Environmental Economics Blog. I'm from Indonesia, a country where the linkage between environmental and economics is not fully understood. If you have a mailing list (perhaps yahhoogroups@yahoo.com) can you please let me know about it, so I can enroll myself.

thanks a lot,

palge hutagaol

[Jessup Ganther]

From a statistical perspective, what is the best approach to derive a model to forecast Chicago Climate Exchange prices?

J Ganther

[Giorgos K]

What are the appropriate strategies for protecting the environment in developing countries?

[Prabhas Choudhuri]

What is Material Balance Model in Environmental Economics?

[Prabhas Choudhuri]

What is the relation between Resource Economics and Environmental Economics?

[Joanne]

what is the relevance of environmental economics to caribbean economies

[Adam]

A friend of mine opposes the gas tax on the grounds that it will make us less competitive with other nations (such as China).

Would a gas tax have much impact on production? How would you expect international trade to respond to a gas tax?

thanks.

[John Whitehead]

From Odograph:

The most 2006 EPA fuel economy guide was just published. It picks a single miles-per-year (15K) and a single gas price ($2.40) to calculate the "estimate annual fuel cost" that we will all see on window stickers.

Question for economists, to what extent will that dollar figure deceive?

Is 15K a good average? Even if it is, how many American drivers are further out the bell curve, at 30K?

What happens if you put in some trending for gas prices over the next year or two ... would some plausable "future prices" make a bigger impact with a consumer than a backword looking average ($2.40?), which itself might falsely imply a "return to the mean?"

[talise warner]

Government has decided to put a celing on the price of milk .what effect will this action have on tn demand for milk?

[Chrissy]

How far can economists help us solve environmental problems?

[Jim Coomes]

Senator Liberman and another were on Fox new Nov. 16, 2005. They stated that they had a new bipartisan energy bill that would reduce oil dependance. They stressed biofuels. They insinuated that biofuels would be economicaly competetive. One would infer that they are also refering to ethonal. I still think that ethonal can be produced at a competitive price to gasoline. Maybe not by using geneticaly enginered seeds but by using "historic" natural corn/soya seeds. Any comments?

1) Can you set up a link to that bill?
2) What is your impression of it?
3) What percentage of chance do you see of it passing?

Thanks!