everything.study
11.942

Regional Energy-Environmental Economic Modeling

Graduate · Historical course

Spring 2007

Topics

  • Overview of regional sustainable development issues
  • Sustainable energy and environmental systems
  • Green accounting and relevance for regional modeling
  • Life-cycle assessments, part 1
  • Life-cycle assessments, part 2
  • Regional energy-efficiency and environmental models, part 1
  • Regional energy-efficiency and environmental models, part 2
  • Climate change models, part 1
  • Climate change models, part 2
  • Linkage between environmental and energy models, part 1
  • Linkage between environmental and energy models, part 2
  • Student presentations

Readings

  • Buy at MIT Press Tester, Jefferson, Elisabeth Drake, Michael Driscoll, Michael Golay, and William Peters. “Sustainable Energy: The Engine of Sustainable Development.” In Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005, pp. 1-50. ISBN: 978-0262201537. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Smil, Vaclav. Energy . Oxford, UK: One World Publications, 2006, pp. 85-126. ISBN: 978-1851684526.
    Listed reading
  • Bolt, Katherine, Giovanni Ruta, and Maria Sarraf. “Estimating the Cost of Environmental Degradation” ( PDF - 2.2 MB ). Washington, DC: The World Bank Environment Department, 2005, pp. E1-E80. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Hecht, Joy. National Environmental Accounting: Bridging the Gap between Ecology and Economy . Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2005, pp. 53-89. ISBN: 978-1891853944.
    Listed reading
  • “The Greening of China.” The Economist , October 20, 2005.
    Listed reading
  • Miller, Ian, Michael Shelly, Paul Jonmaire, Richard Lee, and Raymond Harbison. “Assessing Contributory Risk Using Economic Input-Output Life-Cycle Analysis.” International Journal of Environmental Health Research 15, no. 2 (2005): 107-115.
    Listed reading
  • Hendrickson, Chris, Lester Lave, and H. Scott Matthews. Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Goods and Services: An Input-Output Approach . Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2006. ISBN: 978-1933115245.
    Listed reading
  • Ning Ai, Zhan Guo, and Karen Polenske. “Socioeconomic Impact Analysis of Yellow-Dust Storms: An Approach and Case Study for Beijing.” Economic Systems Research , publication forthcoming.
    Listed reading
  • Flynn, Edward. “ Impact of Technological Change and Productivity on the Coal Market .” Energy Information Administration, 2000. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Polenske, Karen, and Xiannuan Lin. “Conserving Energy to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions in China.” Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 4, no. 2 (1993): 249-265.
    Listed reading
  • Polenske, Karen, and Francis McMichael. “A Chinese Cokemaking Process-Flow Model for Energy and Environmental Analyses.” Energy Policy 30, no. 10 (2002): 865-883.
    Listed reading
  • Rupasingha, Anil, Stephan Goetz, David Debertin, and Angelos Pagoulatos. “Tne Environmental Kuznets Curve for US Counties: A Spatial Econometric Analysis with Extensions.” Papers in Regional Science 83, no. 2 (2004): 407-424.
    Listed reading
  • Zhang, Zhongxiang. “Why Did the Energy Intensity Fall in China’s Industrial Sector in the 1990s? The Relative Importance of Structural Change and Intensity Change.” Energy Economics 25, no. 6 (2003): 625-638.
    Listed reading
  • Lin, Xiannuan. “Declining Energy Intensity in China’s Industrial Sector.” Journal of Energy and Development 16, no. 2 (1992): 195-218.
    Listed reading
  • Lin, Xiannuan (James), and Karen Polenske. “Energy-Use and Air-Pollution Impacts of China’s Transportation Growth.” In Energizing China: Reconciling Environmental Protection and Economic Growth . Edited by Michael McElroy, Chris Nielsen, and Peter Lydon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Center for the Environment, 1998, pp. 201-238. ISBN: 978-0674253292.
    Listed reading
  • Lin, Xiannuan, and Karen Polenske. “Input-Output Modeling of Production Processes for Business Management.” Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 9 (1998): 205-226.
    Listed reading
  • Mock, John, Jefferson Tester, and P. Michael Wright. “Geothermal Energy from the Earth: Its Potential Impact as an Environmentally Sustainable Resource.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 22 (1997): 305-356.
    Listed reading
  • Darwin, Roy, Marinos Tsigas, Jan Lewandrowski, and Anton Raneses. “Land Use and Cover in Ecological Economics.” Ecological Economics 17 (1996): 157-181.
    Listed reading
  • Mendelsohn, R., W. Nordhaus, and D. Shaw. “The Impact of Climate Change on US Agriculture: A Ricardian Approach.” American Economic Review 84, no. 4 (1994): 753-771.
    Listed reading
  • IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis . ↗
    Listed reading
  • Izaurralde, R. Cesar, Norman Rosenberg, Robert Brown, and Allison Thomson. “Integrated Assessment of Hadley Center (HadCM2) Climate-Change Impacts on Agricultural Productivity and Irrigation Water Supply in the Conterminous United States. Part II. Regional Agriculture Production in 2030 and 2095.” Agricultural and Forest Meterology 117, no. 1-2 (2003): 97-122.
    Listed reading
  • Mendelsohn, Robert, William Nordhaus, and Daigee Shaw. “The Impact of Global Warming on Agriculture: A Ricardian Analysis.” American Economic Review 84, no. 4 (1994): 753-771.
    Listed reading
  • Parry, Martin, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Ana Iglesias, Gunther Fischer, and Matthew Livermore. “Climate Change and World Food Security: A New Assessment.” Global Environmental Change 9 (1999): S51-S67.
    Listed reading
  • Considine, Timothy. “ Is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Our Ace in the Hole? ” Energy Journal 27, no. 3 (2006): 91-112. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Kaufmann, Robert, Stephane Dees, Pavlos Karadeloglou, and Marcelo Sanchez. “Does OPEC Matter? An Econometric Analysis of Oil Prices.” Energy Journal 25 (2004): 67-90.
    Listed reading
  • Polenske, Karen. The Technology-Energy-Environmental-Health (TEEH) Chain: A Case Study of Cokemaking . Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006, pp. 1-22. ISBN: 978-1402034336.
    Listed reading
  • Polenske, Karen, and Ali Shirvani-Mahdavi. “Review of an Emissions Permit Exchange and the Characteristics of the Reclaim NO x Market in Los Angeles.” Prepared for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Baughman, Martin, and Paul Joskow. “The Effects of Fuel Prices on Residential Appliance Choice in the United States.” Land Economics 51, no. 1 (1975): 41-49.
    Listed reading
  • Borenstein, Severin. “The Trouble with Electricity Markets: Understanding California’s Restructuring Disaster.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 16, no. 1 (2002): 191-211.
    Listed reading
  • Joskow, Paul, and Edward Kahn. “A Quantitative Analysis of Pricing Behavior in California’s Wholesale Electricity Market During Summer 2000.” Energy Journal 23, no. 4 (2002):1-35.
    Listed reading
  • Mauzerall, Denise, and Xiaoping Wang. “Protecting Agricultural Crops from the Effects of Tropospheric Ozone Exposure: Reconciling Science and Standard Setting in the United States, Europe, and Asia.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment , 26 (2001): 237-268.
    Listed reading
Spring 2004 · Use of Joint Fact Finding in Science Intensive Policy Disputes, Part II

Topics

  • Discussion of ways scientific information is normally used in the policy-making process. We will contrast the traditional adversarial approach to environmental policy with a collaborative problem solving approach that seeks to build consensus. The point s of view of the scientist and policy maker will be considered.
  • Presentation of fall semester student papers as part of the review of concepts and topics covered in the fall.
  • Student paper presentation and discussion continued. Based on this review and discussion we will generate a set of questions not explored and answered in the fall seminar, which will help guide development of a joint fact finding model to environmental policy.
  • Review the status of the Cape Wind application process.
  • Discuss potential future sites of offshore wind energy and explore a collaborative process approach to the permitting and leasing of these sites. Discuss a citizen-based, collaborative problem solving approach to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that includes an adaptive management and monitoring and assessment component.
  • Discuss and develop a proposal that takes a joint fact finding approach to the Cape Wind issue by building on the efforts of the fall semester class.
  • Discussion of role-play simulations as learning and research tools with examples of actual simulations.
  • As preparation for developing a role-play simulation that places the Cape Wind issue in the context of a collaborative process that includes joint fact finding, the students will play two simulations this week. Play “Framing a Joint Fact Finding Mission Statement in a Contested Ecosystem Management Situation.”
  • Play “Joint Fact Finding Simulation - A New Discovery in the Fishery.”
  • Begin design of role-play based on the Cape Wind issue. The purpose of the simulation is to introduce participants to joint fact finding and to an environmental policy process that is based on collaborative problem solving and consensus decision-making.
  • Simulation development.
  • The possibility for students whose schedules permit to participate in “Coastal Wind Development in the Northeast-State of the Science Workshop;” a workshop of Northeast region scientists from USGS, NPS, FWS and MMS convened by USGS and facilitated by CBI held in Sudbury.
  • Invite outside participants to play the Cape Wind simulation to rehearse it.
  • Revise the simulation and prepare teaching notes based on the rehearsal.
  • Develop a web page so that the simulation and papers from the fall semester can be accessed over the Internet. Prepare simulation and papers for publication as part of the USGS/MIT/Harvard working paper series.
Sources