Organizational Unit:

School of Public Policy

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70716

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Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

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Technology Policy and Assessment Center

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https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1033

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 15

Reviving Manufacturing with a Federal Cogeneration Policy

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-10) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Cox, Matthew ; Baer, Paul

Improving the energy economics of manufacturing is essential to revitalizing the industrial base of advanced economies. This paper evaluates a federal policy option aimed at promoting industrial cogeneration – the production of heat and electricity in a single energy-efficient process. Detailed analysis using the National Energy Modeling System and spreadsheet calculations suggest that industrial cogeneration could meet 18% of U.S. electricity requirements by 2035, compared with its current 8.9% market share. Substituting less efficient utility-scale power plants with cogeneration systems would produce numerous economic and environmental benefits, but would also create an assortment of losers as well as winners. Multiple perspectives to benefit/cost analysis are therefore valuable. Our results indicate that the federal cogeneration policy would be highly favorable to manufacturers and the public sector, cutting energy bills, generating billions of dollars in electricity sales, making producers more competitive, and reducing pollution. Traditional utilities, on the other hand, would likely lose revenues. From a public policy perspective, deadweight losses would be introduced by market-distorting federal incentives (ranging annually from $30 to $150 million), but these losses are much smaller than the estimated net social benefits of the federal cogeneration policy.
Myths and Facts about Clean Electricity in the U.S. South

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-09) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Gumerman, Etan ; Sun, Xiaojing ; Kim, Gyungwon ; Sercy, Kenneth

This paper identifies six myths about clean electricity in the southern U.S. These myths are either propagated by the public at-large, shared within the environmental advocacy culture, or spread imperceptibly between policymakers. Using a widely accepted energy-economic modeling tool, we expose these myths as half-truths and the kind of conventional wisdom that constrains productive debate. In so doing, we identify new starting points for energy policy development. Climate change activists may be surprised to learn that it will take more than a national Renewable Electricity Standard or supportive energy efficiency policies to retire coal plants. Low-cost fossil generation enthusiasts may be surprised to learn that clean generation can save consumers money, even while meeting most demand growth over the next 20 years. This work surfaces the myths concealed in public perceptions and illustrates the positions of various stakeholders in this large U.S. Region.
Energy Security Dimensions and Trends in Industrialized Countries

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-06) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Sovacool, Benjamin K. ; Wang, Yu ; D‘Agostino, Anthony Louis

This article represents one of the first scholarly efforts to correlate actual energy policy and practice with expert views of the multidimensional concept of energy security. Based on the energy security performance of 22 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development between 1970 and 2007, it concludes that many industrialized countries have been unable to make progress toward the goal of achieving secure, reliable and affordable supplies of energy while also transitioning to a low-carbon energy system. However, some national best practices exist, which are identified by examining the relative performance of four countries: the United Kingdom and Belgium (both with noteworthy improvements), and Sweden and France (which have experienced notable slippage in relative performance). The article concludes by offering implications for energy policy more broadly and by providing empirical evidence that our four dimensions of energy security (availability, affordability, energy efficiency, and environmental stewardship) envelop the key strategic dimensions of energy security.
Health impacts from electromagnetic field exposure

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-05) Kostoff, Ronald N.

This study overviews electromagnetic field (EMF) health impacts based on highly cited biomedical articles. It identifies health impacts resulting from exposure to EMF. A comprehensive query retrieved much of the relevant literature describing EMF health impacts, with strong emphasis on the mid and lower frequency non-ionizing (radio/microwave and power frequencies) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This retrieved literature was clustered algorithmically into sixteen biomedical sub-themes (assigned by the author). The highly cited papers and references in the thirteen most relevant of these sub-themes were analyzed, allowing the literature to be viewed through the filter of the most credible science. Two of the thirteen relevant clusters addressed the use of EMF for therapeutic purposes: alleviating joint pain and accelerating healing of bone fractures, with some applications to treating carcinomas (e.g., hyperthermia). All the highly cited papers in these two clusters showed positive results, with varying degrees of the level of impact. The treatments tended to be relatively short exposures of EMF over relatively short periods of time. The remaining eleven relevant clusters were divided into two main groups: (1) basic science research on the interaction of biological systems and organisms with EMF radiation; (2) epidemiological studies, focused mainly on population effects of occupational, residential, and mobile communications exposures to EMF. In group (1), broad agreement among the highly cited papers occurred in the following clusters: EMF interference with medical devices; cell phone neurological impacts; EMF-induced fields/currents in organisms; EMF impacts on calcium dynamics; gene expression/(heat shock protein) HSP induction of cells exposed to EMF; exposure of EMF on rat melatonin/oxidation/brain function; microwave radiation effects on proteins/cells/tissues, and sharp disagreements among the highly cited papers occurred in the following clusters: DNA/immune damage from cell exposure to EMF; cancer/embryo developmental effects on mice exposed to EMF. Group (2) included: cancer risks from EMF exposure; health risks from magnetic field exposure. For 'cancer risks from EMF exposure', the results are mixed. However, there appears to be more agreement that a) occupational exposures to EMF are associated with increased cancer risk than b) mobile phones are associated with increased cancer risk. Within the mobile phone literature, a statement from Kundi et al (2004) appears to reflect many (not all) from the broad range of results: there is evidence for enhanced cancer risk with increasing latency and duration of mobile phone use. For 'health risks from magnetic field exposure', the focus of the highly cited papers tended to be on associations of childhood cancers (mainly leukemia) with magnetic field exposures. The results are mixed, ranging from no statistically significant associations to significant associations with relatively high magnetic field exposures.
Privatizing Climate Change Policy: is there a public benefit?

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04) Matisoff, Daniel C.

The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) are two private voluntary initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions and improving carbon management by firms. I sample power plants from firms participating in each of these programs, and match these to plants belonging to non-participating firms, to control for differences between participating and non-participating plants. Using a difference-in-differences model to control for unobservable differences between participants and non-participants, and to control for the trajectory of emissions prior to program participation, I find that CCX participation is associated with a decrease in total carbon dioxide emissions for participating plants, but not carbon dioxide intensity. The CDP is associated with a decrease in carbon dioxide intensity, but not total carbon dioxide emissions.
Organizational paths of commercializing patented inventions: The effects of transaction costs, firm capabilities, and collaborative ties

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04) Jung, Taehyun ; Walsh, John P.

This study examines the factors affecting modes of commercializing patented inventions using a novel dataset based on a survey of U.S. inventors. We find that technological uncertainty and possessing complementary assets raise the propensity for internal commercialization. We find that R&D collaboration with firms in a horizontal relationship is likely to increase the propensity to license the invention. In addition, the paper shows that macro-level environment conditions that affect exchange conditions, such as technology familiarity, influence the effects of capabilities on governance choice.
Which Type of Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant? The Effectiveness of Information Disclosure Programs

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04) Matisoff, Daniel C.

This study assesses the effectiveness of two information disclosure programs – the success of state-based mandatory carbon reporting programs and the voluntary Carbon Disclosure Project, which uses investor pressure to push firms to disclose carbon emissions and carbon management strategies. I match firms in each program to control groups of firms that have not participated in each program. Using panel data methods including a difference in differences model and fixed effects model, I measure the impact of each program on plant-level carbon emissions and plant-level carbon intensity. I find that the Carbon Disclosure Project is associated with reductions in plant level carbon intensity. State reporting programs do not have an impact on carbon intensity. Neither program impacted total carbon emissions. I conclude that participation in the CDP reflects changes made by firm managers that lead to improved carbon management.
An Emerging Geography of Intangible Assets: Financialization in Carbon Emissions Credit and Intellectual Property Markets

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011) Clark, Jennifer ; Knox-Hayes, Janelle

In this article we investigate how two cases of ‘intangible assets,’ carbon emissions credits and intellectual property, shift the balance of economic activity between and across regions. Carbon emissions credits and intellectual property portfolios require predictable and enforceable property rights regimes to gain and retain value. Hence these assets and the intermediaries that trade them generally operate within advanced economies. Our analysis highlights several findings. First, large, integrated TNCs play a key role in the emerging markets for these intangible assets by driving investment, directing acquisitions, and influencing the structure and character of the assets themselves through the regulatory regimes that define them. Second, the public policy interests in innovation and sustainability shaping the governance structures that assign these assets with property rights do not alter their fundamental operation as financial instruments. Thus these intangible assets are more than efforts to codify and fix a market price to the externalities of the production processes of carbon emissions and research. They also create geographic sites of alternative, competitive investment. We suggest that these assets produce a geography that both siphons off capital from production sites and isolates assets in privileged financial and investment capitals.
Renewable energy in the South: a policy brief

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-07) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Gumerman, Etan ; Baek, Youngsun ; Morris, Cullen ; Wang, Yu

This working paper assesses the economic potential of renewable electricity generation in the South under alternative policy scenarios. Using a customized version of the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), we examine the impact of 1) expanded and updated estimates of renewable resources, 2) a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), and 3) a Carbon-Constrained Future (CCF). Under the Expanded Renewables Scenario, renewable electricity generation doubles the output of the Reference forecast for the South. If a Federal RPS is imposed or the policies represented by our CCF scenario are implemented, we estimate that 15% to 30% of the South’s electricity could be generated from renewable sources. Among the renewable resources, wind, biomass, and hydro are anticipated to provide the most generation potential. As the integration of renewable sources expands through the modeled time horizon, wind gradually out-competes biomass in the renewable electricity market. Cost-effective customer-owned renewables could also contribute significantly to electricity generation by 2030 in the South, under supportive policies.
The Forest Products Industry at an Energy/Climate Crossroads

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-06) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Baek, Youngsun

Transformational energy and climate policies are being debated worldwide that could have significant impact upon the future of the forest products industry. Because woody biomass can produce alternative transportation fuels, low-carbon electricity, and numerous other “green” products in addition to traditional paper and lumber commodities, the future use of forest resources is highly uncertain. Using the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), this paper assesses the future of the forest products industry under three possible U.S. policy scenarios: (1) a national renewable electricity standard, (2) a national policy of carbon constraints, and (3) incentives for industrial energy efficiency. In addition, we discuss how these policy scenarios might interface with the recently strengthened U.S. renewable fuels standards. The principal focus is on how forest products including residues might be utilized under different policy scenarios, and what such market shifts might mean for electricity and biomass prices, as well as energy consumption and carbon emissions. The results underscore the value of incentivizing energy efficiency in a portfolio of energy and climate policies in order to moderate electricity and biomass price escalation while strengthening energy security and reducing CO2 emissions.