News piling up

I was traveling for the month of June but of course the news doesn't stop! Here are a few highlights.

First, the always great Hannah Ritchie posted this blog listing energy sources by US state. That info has been on this blog before but it's a nice, clear formulation.

Also related to energy: I don't spend enough time talking about public utility commisions in my class. Yes, it may be efficient to allow one provider (who faces lower costs by virtue of operating at scale) to dominate the market, but that also creates its own problems, as shown at the above link. 

While I start off my class talking about successes like Norman Borlaug, we quickly turn to current problems. I enjoyed this other reminder of technical success: the way that lighting has become basically free where it used to be very expensive (centuries ago). (And speaking of Borlaug, I enjoyed this piece about how GMOs save cropland, and the new phosphate resource recently identified in Norway, which would undercut West Africa's stranglehold.)

Another technical development has been the increase of US petroleum production. The US is close to producing the most oil that it ever has. That's good and bad, I guess?

Transitioning from energy to urban transportation. This Brookings study finds that "activity centers" make a huge difference for vehicle miles traveled, and the conclusion is that urban centers should be built around these clusters to minimize transportation time. VMT are what this NYT article thinks we should be taxing more, arguing that it will be more efficient than a gas tax for the roads. Meanwhile, urban researchers found that having more urban density doesn't improve people's health, but it makes people more likely to be sedentary (my interpretation of the metabolic scores in the article). And finally Vox has a new piece up on the huge number of pedestrians who are killed by cars every year in the US. It's all very complicated, isn't it?

Resource Econ Movies

Students this semester produced the following documentary videos:

Towson Run Stream Restoration

Baltimore's Incinerator

Stormwater management

Effects of Cocoa Production

Economics behind recycling

Oil & Chemical Spills

Hydrogen Cars

Environmental costs of coal

Economics of Cervid Disease Control

How much does your trash cost?

Economics of oil painting

Costs & Benefits of Renewable Energy & Species Conservation 

Nuclear energy

Insects: Balancing Ecological Benefits with Costs for Control

Stream Restoration in Maryland

Economics of sea level rise 

Snakehead in the Chesapeake

Growing your own food

Economic analysis of natural gas usage in the Eastern US 

Eastern shore Agricultural Best Management Practices

Nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake

 

Power sources by state

Fun interactive article in the Post: see how the mix of power sources has changed in your state over the past 20 years. Almost all states are less carbon intensive in their power mix, for a variety of reasons. Many, including red states such as Kansas and Iowa, are using more wind and solar, and in other places such as Maryland natural gas has taken over for coal. Good to see progress!

Oil production and consumption

First, consumption: I had no idea that 10% of drivers are responsible for 28% of gas consumption (for cars- pretty sure those private jets are a problem too). Turns out that gas consumption is supercharged by a group of users that are mostly rural, mostly poor, and who spend an inordinate amount on transportation. If those users were given electric powered vehicles, that would make a much bigger difference than switching in Corollas for Priuses, say.

Also interesting is this summary of Willow project, recently approved by the Biden administration to start drilling in Alaska. The project is located outside of the National Wildlife Refuge, leading advocates to tout the jobs and other economic benefits, while others want all of the wilderness to remain untouched. Alaskan oilfields have been productive for decades, but there have also been notable spills in Prudhoe Bay, some issues along the pipeline, and of course the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. That said, on balance the pipeline has been quite successful, having increased income across the state of Alaska by 5 times. 

Data sources

I keep running across new websites offering access to data. Here are a few.

Opportunity Insights social mobility, based on US Census data

Data Commons environmental & climate change data

March News: Fracking, poverty, lithium and milk

While it would be quite a feat if I could actually make these three topics actually connect, those are just the issues that caught my eye recently.

First, on fracking for natural gas: I assigned Gasland and FrackNation in my Resource Economics class and they were not impressed. That's not a strange response, but it's rather new: I think before the pandemic, and before Trump, people were surprised to see journalists playing fast and loose with the facts, but today it's well known, even expected. Sort of heartbreaking, but maybe I don't need to make such a point about that anymore. Anyway, students recommended instead this BBC piece as an intro to fracking, and the 2012 movie Promised Land as better showcasing the dilemma. I will need to watch that one!

Second, milk: last year I assigned a variety of YouTube clips about meat and milk production, and while I'm letting that topic go this semester this Washington Post article caught my eye. It seems that milk protein is already being made without cows: yeasts and fungi can produce it without putting cows through the misery of repeatedly giving birth and then separation from their calves. I assume it's not quite cost effective yet, but hopefully the engineers will keep working on that front.

Third, lithium. As electric vehicles increasingly add market share, you'd think that the raw materials needed to produce them would be on the rise. In the case of lithium, you'd be wrong. Not sure that the low prices will continue, but for now prices are down a bit.

Finally, as we go into the public goods portion of the course, poverty reduction is often overlooked. We tend to think that people should take care of themselves, and that handouts are not sustainable. Just a reminder from someone who sees homeless people on the streets every day: it helps everyone if we can make people self-sufficient, including recognizing systems that keep people on the streets. WaPo link, for the article that reminded me...

Nutrition & human height

A six minute video posted on Vox shows how important a good diet is. This will be useful in my stats class, but it's also relevant for Resources: note that while Borlaug's work didn't have a direct effect on infant mortality rates, the changes he contributed to made a big difference for a lot of people. While genetics are important, diet can also determine as much as 20% of a person's height, which is why South Korea saw such impressive gains in height in the late 20th century. I always appreciate a little good news!