Renewable Fuel Standard
Renewable Fuel Standard

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-01-29

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0309187516

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In the United States, we have come to depend on plentiful and inexpensive energy to support our economy and lifestyles. In recent years, many questions have been raised regarding the sustainability of our current pattern of high consumption of nonrenewable energy and its environmental consequences. Further, because the United States imports about 55 percent of the nation's consumption of crude oil, there are additional concerns about the security of supply. Hence, efforts are being made to find alternatives to our current pathway, including greater energy efficiency and use of energy sources that could lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as nuclear and renewable sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. The United States has a long history with biofuels and the nation is on a course charted to achieve a substantial increase in biofuels. Renewable Fuel Standard evaluates the economic and environmental consequences of increasing biofuels production as a result of Renewable Fuels Standard, as amended by EISA (RFS2). The report describes biofuels produced in 2010 and those projected to be produced and consumed by 2022, reviews model projections and other estimates of the relative impact on the prices of land, and discusses the potential environmental harm and benefits of biofuels production and the barriers to achieving the RFS2 consumption mandate. Policy makers, investors, leaders in the transportation sector, and others with concerns for the environment, economy, and energy security can rely on the recommendations provided in this report.

Climate Change Law and Policy
Climate Change Law and Policy

Author: Cinnamon Piñon Carlarne

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 0199553416

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Existing climate change governance regimes in the US and the EU contain complex mixtures of regulatory, market, voluntary, and research-based strategies. The EU has adopted an approach to climate change that is based on mandatory greenhouse gas emission reductions; it is grounded in 'hard' law measures and accompanied by 'soft' law measures at the regional and Member State level. In contrast, until recently, the US federal government has carefully avoided mandatory emission reduction obligations and focused instead on employing a variety of 'soft' measures to encourage - rather than mandate - greenhouse gas emission reductions in an economically sound, market-driven manner. These macro level differences are critical yet they mask equally important transatlantic policy convergences. The US and the EU are pivotal players in the development of the international climate change regime. How these two entities structure climate change laws and policies profoundly influences the shape and success of climate change laws and policies at multiple levels of governance. This book suggests that the overall structures and processes of climate change law and policy-making in the US and the EU are intricately linked to international policy-making and, thus, the long-term success of global efforts to address climate change. Accordingly, the book analyses the content and process of climate change law and policy-making in the US and the EU to reveal policy convergences and divergences, and to examine how these convergences and divergences impact the ability of the global community to structure a sustainable, effective and equitable long-term climate strategy.

The Next Economics
The Next Economics

Author: Woodrow W. Clark II

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-05

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1461449723

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The Next Economics focuses on how the field of economics must change and incorporate environment, energy, health and new technologies that are called externalities for stopping and reversing climate change. The field of economics needs to become a science. Economics in this book for the Green Industrial Revolution which goes beyond the third industrial revolution since it covers cases, examples and specific economic analyses that both scientific and global. The book concerns climate change and how the Economics for Externalities, needs to range from energy and national security to infrastructure and communities. Solutions and cases of the “Next Economics” are based in western philosophical economic paradigms and how that is changing due to the significance of current global economic and societal concerns. Finally practical applications for economics are explored using global environmental and energy issues. Areas that need a fresh look at and be integrated with economics, include the environment, social and political issues, energy, health climate change and their infrastructures, as they are major components of the macroeconomics for the future. Based on past economic models, these subjects have been lost or ill fitted into modern economic theory. The challenge is to explore and to look deeply into economics in order to provide it a new direction with the possibility for understanding, changing and saving the planet from climate change. This book presents to economists and policy-makers alike areas of environmental economics, energy policy, health and social issues which are needed to stop and reverse climate change.