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.