Environmental Economics

Scarcity: the environmental problem

To paddlers, it's the perfect spot for a whitewater park, complete with boulders and other underwater features to intensify the thrill. With $350,000, they have taken the first steps toward making this stretch into a magnet for kayaks, a smaller, more picturesque version of the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte.

But as their plans unfold, so does opposition. To people who remember the Neuse before it was dammed, any further fiddling with its natural course is a slap in the face. Many are pushing for an all-natural park that won't look fake or chase off wildlife.

via www.newsobserver.com

Something good at the Freakonomics Blog

Foreign Policy explores the history of “cap and trade” — the phrase and the concept. The idea has been around since 1967, but the phrase wasn’t coined until 1994, when Joseph Goffman, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, told Congress that a “‘cap-and-trade’ regime … illustrates a compelling strategy for internalizing the environmental costs of energy and electricity production.”

via freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

Friday Beer Post Canadian Women's Hockey Style

 

And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw Molly Hatchet

Where I'll be tonight:

Drive-By Truckers | Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte, NC

Wimp out

From the inbox:

Because of safety concerns related to the anticipated high winds excepted [sic] to occur in the area this afternoon and temperatures in the teens, today's Polar Plunge has been canceled. It will be rescheduled at a later date.

Now if you told me your acceptance rates were up we might be in business...

From the inbox:

We are pleased to let you know that Resource and Energy Economics has improved its publication speed by 49% and is now typically publishing articles in issues within 13.5 weeks of acceptance.

I'd like to view this as good news, but unfortunately it probably just means that my papers will get rejected faster.

In all seriousness, time to publication is not the problem.  The real issue is time to acceptance.  Once a paper is accepted, I can list it as 'forthcoming' and get credit for the publication (I assume most places are like OSU, forthcoming and in print are indistinguishable).  Unfortunately, until lazy reviewers--myself included--start turning around reviews faster, time to acceptance isn't going to change much.

Classes canceled again

I just spent an hour shoveling 3"-4" of snow from the driveway. I come in to get ready to take the kids to snow-day program and get to work and see this in the inbox: 

Feb. 25: Classes that meet before 12:30 p.m. today are canceled. A decision about classes that meet later in the day will be made by 11 a.m. Staff should refer to the university’s adverse weather policy.

I checked the website and it is very true. Weird. It used to take something extraordinary to cancel classes. Here is the talley of Tues, Thurs classes missed so far this semester:

• 8 am -- 5 (2.5 weeks)
• 9:30 am -- 3-4 (2 weeks)*
• 11:00 am -- 2 (1 week)

Something (i.e., makeup plan) needs to be done about that 8 am class. Just saying.

Have rumors of its death been greatly exaggerated?

Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has instructed Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to produce a revamped climate bill as soon as possible, according to sources, a task Kerry intends to accomplish within two weeks.

The marching orders could represent the best chance advocates will get to pass a climate and energy bill before the November elections. Kerry has been working with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) on drafting a measure that could attract bipartisan support, but it remains unclear what combination of policies would draw enough votes to win passage.

"The majority leader is deadly serious about making progress this year on climate and energy reform," Kerry said in a statement. "He's been a hero every step of the process and he's been in constant communication. Senators Lieberman, Graham and I have been meeting every day and we're on a short track here, piecing together legislation and working with our colleagues so it can be finished and rolled out soon."

via views.washingtonpost.com

Education or Signal?

The benefits of putting more people in college are also oversold. Part of the college wage premium is an illusion. People who go to college are, on average, smarter than people who don't. In an economy that increasingly rewards intelligence, you'd expect college grads to pull ahead of the pack even if their diplomas signified nothing but their smarts. College must make many students more productive workers. But at least some of the apparent value of a college degree, and maybe a lot of it, reflects the fact that employers can use it as a rough measure of job applicants' intelligence and willingness to work hard.

via www.time.com

Nodding uncomfortably.

New climate economics blog: Public Goods

The blogger is Liz Stanton:

... with climate legislation stalled in Congress, the EPA regulatory actions could be the only U.S. climate policy that we see for a long time. So it’s worth a little of our time and brain cells to figure out just what the [Social Cost of Carbon] means and why we should care.

The dollar figure put on the SCC will determine just how much regulation actually takes place. The EPA will look, in traditional cost-benefit-analysis style, at the cost of complying with a regulation in comparison to the SCC. If complying with the regulation costs more per ton than the SCC, the EPA won’t require it. If it costs less, it will. A high SCC means lots of regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (think: higher fuel-efficiency requirements on cars, tighter emissions requirements for power plants). A low SCC means little or no regulation.

The EPA’s method of calculating the SCC is troubling and, perhaps, the subject of another blog posting. Suffice it to say, the figure is fairly arbitrary, based on a bunch of value judgments that need a lot closer examination by a wider public.

via lizstanton.wordpress.com

I have my own blog post brewing on the SCC. Beware.