Environmental Economics

End of quarter bs from (for?) students

From the Inbox:

Dr. Haab: Are you going to regrade problem set #3.  I got a 65% on it and I would like to improve that if I could.

My response:

I’m not sure I understand your question on problem set #3.  Was there a problem with the grading?

Student re-response:

I thought you may bump the grades up if everyone did bad, I was just asking if you would do that basically.  I thought that I'd slip that into my email just to see if I could get some extra points...

I don't have any specific questions about problem set 3, I'd have to take another hard look at it and possibly bs some rationalization on why I should get more points, I don't know if I really feel like doing all that though.  I know you are giving me the chance to do so but my current cost benefit analysis says to worry about it later unless I could convince you to just bump everyone's grade up, in which case I could just move with the herd.  

I might get back with you if you are definitely going to do that.

Updated (5/25/10, 6 pm) BP Oil Spill Fishery Closure Map

via sero.nmfs.noaa.gov

Update those preliminary damage estimates!

Where I'm not today

Appalachian leadership gets it’s turn today to make their budget case with meetings at the legislature in Raleigh.  Appalachian’s delegation will include the faculty and staff members, alumni, parents, students and board of trustee members.

The group will meet with key legislators in the budget process—the current proposed 2010-11 state budget could force the University of North Carolina system to make cuts that could result in a $7 million loss on Appalachian’s campus next year, according to Appalachian officials.  It is a part of an overall effort by the University of North Carolina system to influence the budget process, a process nearing a deadline next week.

via www.goblueridge.net

They won't miss me. Economists are not a very good lobbyists for bigger budgets (unless it is our grant budget).

Check out my Unifour* presentation!

Here 'tis: Green Job Creation in the Emerging Economy (I found one mistake as I reviewed them through the plenary talks (EPA air quality initiatives and NC air quality trends)). I included a "winner" on the "loser" slide. I beg your forgiveness). Note that the title was given to me (i.e., I was asked to speak on this topic). You'll notice some familiar themes in the first half:

1. A summary of the local economy -- yikes: not good.
2. What is a green jobs?
3. Environmental policy doesn't create net positive jobs.

In the second half I review a study of a local 1 megawatt solar project. Since the breakout session is on green jobs and that is what I'm supposed to focus on, I go through an economic impact analysis (EIA). In an EIA costs are a good thing because they generate jobs. Then, I talk about what I think is the most important part of the study, the benefit-cost analysis (BCA). The BCA considers the economic efficiency of the project and considers the same costs in the EIA as a bad thing. The benefits of the project include averted costs (coal-fired electricity not paid for) and non-market benefits (the value of air quality improvements). Using some pretest data with a convenience sample and making some conservation assumptions, the net present value of the project is about $7 million (over 30 years) and the benefit-cost ratio is about 1.5. In other words, this is a good project.

*I'm not sure what the term "Unifour" is all about.

Where I'll be today

The 4th annual Unifour Air Quality Conference will be held on May 25, 2010. Sponsored by the Reese Institute for Conservation of Natural Resources and the Unifour Air Quality Committee of Western Piedmont Council of Governments, the conference will feature talks from local, state and federal air quality specialists. Conference attendees may select from a variety of break out sessions focusing topics from green jobs in the new economy to the Unifour Air Quality plan.

via reese.lr.edu

My first visit to Lenoir-Rhyne and I'm talking about green jobs (I'll post my presentation ASAP).

Update: Here is a link to my presentation post.

Picture of the Day

 
"Some of the heaviest oil on land to date is seen along the Louisiana coastline on May 20."

Gulf Oil Spill Economic Damages Update

Officials closed the public beach here Friday as thick gobs of oil resembling melted chocolate washed up, a very visible reminder of the blown-out well that has been spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico for a month.

Up to now, only tar balls and a light sheen had come ashore. But oil was starting to hit the beach at this island resort community in various forms — light sheens, orange-colored splotches and heavier brown sheets — said Chris Roberts, a local official who surveyed the area Friday morning.

via news.yahoo.com

Guess it's time to start adding the value of lost beach access to the value of lost fishing access.

Give that man an empty beer!

The battle continues over the flow of information about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with a new volley on Friday from BP.

The issue is underwater video of the spill and who gets to see it. Congressman Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, has been trying to get BP to provide a live video feed on the Web. This week he finally arranged to host the video at the Web site of his House committee on global warming. One problem with that approach was that the committee’s server has had trouble handling the traffic.

Aside from the millions of curious members of the public who might want to view a live feed of the gushing oil, scientists have been asking for it. On Wednesday, Mr. Markey organized a briefing (it would have been a hearing, but hearings have to be scheduled a week in advance) that featured several scientists pleading for more access.

...

So BP agreed Friday to put live video on its own Web site, www.bp.com. Of course, it emphasized that it had been providing a live feed to government entities for two weeks, including the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service, which are part of the joint recovery effort.

Yet the recovery team has said over most of the last month that about 5,000 barrels a day are leaking, while independent scientists, including some of those who spoke on Wednesday, suggest that the number is 12 to 20 times higher.

BP critiqued those estimates, too. It said that if they were based on the original diameter of the pipe, 19.5 inches, they were probably wrong because the pipe had been narrowed by accident damage. What is more, the pipe has a drill pipe trapped inside it, further constricting the flow. And half of

via green.blogs.nytimes.com

And Mr. Markey wants an empty boast that it is on his committee's website!

Nope, I'm looking at Rep. Markey's smiling face and a black square

Regular people are stupid

CNN Money asks How much is a pelican worth?

Exxon paid nearly a billion dollars in damages into a wildlife conservation fund following the 1989 Valdez disaster, roughly a quarter of the company's entire tab for the spill.

"What BP might pay could be much higher," said Linwood Pendleton, director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy program at Duke University's Nicholas Institute. ...

[I didn't know he had moved to Duke (actually at the marine lab in Beaufort). Dang: just what North Carolina needs, n+1 environmental economists (sarc).]

Fortunately, the government has a system in place to put a dollar figure on dead wildlife.

I'm 100% sure I don't like the government's system.