Environmental Economics

"Watch A Kentucky Student Do The World's Worst Job Of Pitching A Tent"

I'm embarrassed to say I read Deadspin (all the time):

Every year, UK students camp outside Memorial Coliseum in Lexington for a chance at tickets to Big Blue Madness, the introduction ceremony for the Wildcats' men's and women's basketball teams. (It can get violent—Kentucky stations medical personnel at the race to the campsite—and that all this is done for tickets to watch the team practice tells you most of what you need to know about the role basketball plays at UK.)

Here's a time lapse video of this morning's festivities (via Kentucky Sports Radio) and we direct your attention to the yellow tent at bottom center. If our math is right, the time lapse video spans 40 minutes; they never do figure the tent out, though a later photo from the Lexington Herald-Leader shows the tent was, eventually, erected. Success!

via deadspin.com

Quote of the day

"Nobody's going to class tomorrow morning" ~ Erin Andrews  That's because tomorrow's Sunday, Erin. (via crippenstation)

via www.awfulannouncing.com

The value of cuteness

While all endangered species are worth saving, it comes as no surprise that the cute and fuzzy members of the animal kingdom stand a better chance of protection. According to research scientist Ernie Small, after “the cuddlies” and the "poster species" like whales and elephants, human conservation efforts tend to stall.

via www.mnn.com

Just to throw it out there on a Friday, are all endangered species really worth saving?

I'm getting ready to embarrass myself at UNCG

Sometimes blogging is real donkey work

My favorite economic indicator:

Some of the thoroughbred industry’s leading buyers kept their wallets closed — or didn’t dig as deep as usual — but the Keeneland September Yearling Sale still saw its best results since the recession, thanks to spirited buying at all levels of the market by all kinds of buyers.

The sale, the largest of its kind in the world, posted gains in nearly every category as it ended its 13-day run Friday.

The average sale price of $87,354 was up 14.17 percent, while the median of $45,000 was up 50 percent from last year. Before the sale, few expected the gross sales would be close to last year’s number, but they wound up just $3.7 million — just a handful of high quality sales — behind the mark.

Also, a greater percentage of horses exceeded the reserves their sellers set this year than last. The percentage that failed to meet their reserves was 19.2, compared with 20.82 percent last year.

via www.courier-journal.com

Did I hear someone say irreversible development? Anyone?

As you read this, think about how many green jobs would be created:

What if Louisville moved its Ohio River dam upriver near the Second Street bridge, creating a scenic waterfall that also exposed more of the Falls of the Ohio — the series of rocky rapids that helped give birth to the city?

That was the idea presented Tuesday during one of several sessions of the Idea Festival-affiliated Water Conference, a concept that local engineering, energy and park officials said is fun to imagine but highly impractical because of cost, navigation and hydroelectric obstacles. ...

Presenter Steven Greseth, who has degrees in business and civil engineering and was business consultant for a German hydroelectric company, told a crowd at the Kentucky Center that he thinks it would be a stunning natural feature, a big tourist draw and allow Louisville to highlight its history.

Acknowledging it was an theoretical concept short on details, Greseth suggested building a new dam near the Second Street bridge, where the now-submerged falls actually begin, using an irregular design to make it look like a natural waterfall with a drop of at least 14 feet.

The old Z-shaped dam further downriver would then be demolished — an effort he estimated would cost at least $250 million. It would cost more to relocate the dam’s hydroelectric plant.

Greseth believes that navigation channels near the Kentucky side of the river could be maintained, while exposing thousand of feet of rock that would form a city-defining water feature.

“It would be spectacular. … It’s a way to bring visitors into the community,” said Greseth, estimating it would take at least 10 years, while admitting there were many unknowns to his concept. “I’m just presenting the idea, I’m not presenting the details.”

via www.courier-journal.com

 

"Report: Carbon tax could halve deficit"

A simple idea:

Taxing carbon emissions could raise enough money to eventually cut the deficit in half, but policymakers would face tough questions about whether to use the cash to brighten the fiscal outlook or tackle other needs, a report finds.

Carbon tax proposals to help battle climate change are politically dead in Congress right now. But the Congressional Research Service overview nonetheless arrives at a time of renewed interest in the idea from some policy wonks, Democrats, and former GOP lawmakers.

The report finds that imposing an escalating fee that starts at $20 per metric ton could reduce the projected 10-year budget deficit by more than 50 percent, from $2.3 trillion to $1.1 trillion.That estimate relies on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) “baseline” deficit projection.

But the report notes that the same carbon tax would have a much smaller impact on the deficit — cutting it about 12 percent — under CBO’s “alternative” scenario that forecasts a much bigger shortfall.

The report, relying on CBO analysis of carbon costs under a hypothetical cap-and-trade program, estimates that the escalating $20-per-ton tax could raise $88 billion in 2012, rising to $154 billion in 2021.

via thehill.com

E2-Wire goes on to discuss other uses for the tax revenues, such as cutting taxes (snark: which would also cut the deficit, am I right? Bonus!). 

Breaking wind

It is a tough market for the wind industry:

At its peak in 2008 and 2009, the [wind] industry employed about 85,000 people, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the industry’s principal trade group.

About 10,000 of those jobs have disappeared since, according to the association, as wind companies have been buffeted by weak demand for electricity, stiff competition from cheap natural gas and cheaper options from Asian competitors. Chinese manufacturers, who can often underprice goods because of generous state subsidies, have moved into the American market and have become an issue in the larger trade tensions between the countries. In July, the United States Commerce Department imposed tariffs on steel turbine towers from China after finding that manufacturers had been selling them for less than the cost of production.

And now, on top of the business challenges, the industry is facing a big political problem in Washington: the Dec. 31 expiration of a federal tax credit that makes wind power more competitive with other sources of electricity.

via www.nytimes.com

And international trade sure brings out the hypocrite in us. If a federal tax credit is a subsidy, isn't there a chance that U.S. producers selling stuff for less than the cost of production? On a personal note, I'm always happy if someone is willing to sell me something below cost (i.e., the U.S. is made better off if we can purchase cheap turbine steel towers from China).

Wednesday Beer Post

You didn't think I could let this wait until Friday, did you?

From The Economist:

God Bless the USA.

Apparently I haven't been paying attention to the price of textbooks

I went to submit my order today for a textbook for the Principles of Micro class I am teaching in the Spring.  I chose Mankiw's 6th edition because 1) I am lazy and all of my notes are from Mankiw and 2) I am lazy.  So here is what I found when I was looking up the ISBN #:

Principles of Microeconomics, 6th Edition
N. Gregory Mankiw Professor of Economics, Harvard University
ISBN-10: 0538453044  
ISBN-13: 9780538453042 
528 Pages  Paperback 
©2012     Published
College Bookstore Wholesale Price = $163.75

$163.75. 

Really? 

I may have to change my stance on price gouging.