This talk may be of interest to geographers. And, because we complained (as did others) that the former Baker Center Forum time coincided with our own departmental colloquia, the Baker Center is trying an earlier time this year. --Carol Harden
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Join us for the first Baker Center Interdisciplinary Energy and Environment Forum of this new academic year, which will take place on Thursday, September 25th at 1.00 pm in the Toyota Auditorium in the Baker Center.
***Please note the change of time this year – the forum will now be meeting in a new time-slot from 1-2.30pm on Thursdays.****
Jacob LaRiviere, from the University of Tennessee Department of Economics, will give a 45 minute presentation and then lead a discussion with participants. His talk is titled:
Quantifying Environmental Benefits of Fracking: Air Quality,
Renewables and Implications for Energy Policy.
Abstract: 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"). Researchers and policymakers worry that fracking could threaten health by contaminating local water supplies. In part due to this concern, several US regions and foreign countries have banned or severely restricted 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.
Jacob LaRiviere is a Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Tennessee’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics in the College of Business Administration. He primarily researches in the areas environmental economics, energy policy and the economics of information. He has designed and implemented field experiments for firms and governments in Norway, Scotland, and the United States. His research published multiple times in top environmental economics journals. He earned his PhD in Economics from University of California, San Diego and BA in Economics from University of California, Berkeley.
The Baker Center discussion forum is an opportunity for academics to share both preliminary and polished research findings to a broad set of academics, researchers, and students from outside their own discipline but who have a common interest in environmental and energy issues. For more information about the Baker Center Interdisciplinary Energy and Environment Forum visit the forum’s website: http://web.utk.edu/~jlarivi1/bcinter.html <http://web.utk.edu/~jlarivi1/bcinter.html> .
Please join us for what promises to be a very interesting discussion and presentation.
Paul Armsworth, College of Arts and Sciences
Charles Sims, College of Business Administration
Becky Jacobs, College of Law
Don Hodges, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
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