NOTE NEW TIME!!!!! Free & Open to the Public! Please share with your colleagues!
Baker Energy & Environmental Forum
Thursday, September 25, 2014 - 1:00-2.30 pm
Toyota Auditorium, Howard Baker Center
Quantifying Environmental Benefits of Fracking: Air Quality, Renewables and Implications
for Energy Policy
Dr. Jacob LaRiviere, University of Tennessee, Dept. of Economics
This talk quantifies air quality improvements and energy policy implications from one of the
most important changes to energy markets of the last half-century: hydraulic fracturing
("fracking"). This talk discusses two research projects related to possible environmental
benefits of fracking: first, we use a regional specific electricity dispatch model to predict
what the causal effect of natural gas price decreases (due to fracking) are for coal fired
electricity generation. We then match those causal changes to detailed air quality monitor
data to estimate the causal effect of the price decrease on changes in air quality. Second,
we estimate how the decrease in natural gas prices has asymmetrically affected the
emissions profile from electricity generation in different US regions throughout the day.
This lets us link the effects of fracking to changes in various pollution outcomes from
different energy policies, paying specific attention to renewable generation sources like
wind. The talk highlights the importance of analyzing both the costs and benefits in
determining both regional and national energy policies.
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