Nathan Parker

Some Inconvenient Truths About Climate Change Policy: The Distributional Impacts of Transportation Policies

Climate policy has favored costly measures that implicitly or explicitly subsidize lowcarbon fuels.We simulate four transportation sector policies: cap and trade (CAT), ethanol subsidies, a renewable fuel standard (RFS), and a lowcarbon fuel standard. Our simulations confirm that alternatives to CAT are 2.5 to 4 times more costly but are amenable to adoption due to right-skewed distributions of gains. We analyze voting on the Waxman-Markey (WM) CAT bill. Conditional on a district’s CAT gains, a district’s RFS gains are negatively correlated with the likelihood of voting for WM. Our analysis supports campaign contributions as a partial mechanism.

Assessment of Technologies to Meet a Low Carbon Fuel Standard

Californias low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) was designed to incentivize a diverse array of available strategies for reducing transportation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It provides strong incentives for fuels with lower GHG emissions, while explicitly requiring a 10% reduction in Californias transportation fuel GHG intensity by 2020. This paper investigates the potential for cost-effective GHG reductions from electrification and expanded use of biofuels. The analysis indicates that fuel providers could meet the standard using a portfolio approach that employs both biofuels and electricity, which would reduce the risks and uncertainties associated with the progress of cellulosic and battery technologies, feedstock prices, land availability, and the sustainability of the various compliance approaches. Our analysis is based on the details of Californias development of an LCFS; however, this research approach could be generalizable to a national U.S. standard and to similar programs in Europe and Canada.

Spatially Explicit Projection of Biofuel Supply for Meeting Renewable Fuel Standard

The revised Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) in the United States mandates significant growth in the biofuels industry with 36 billion gallons by 2022. Volumes are mandated for each year from 2009 to 2022. In this study, the author simulated the industry required to meet the 2018 mandate, with special attention to the geographic layout. The methodology built a series of scenarios by varying market and technology parameters that influence the design of the biofuel industry. The industry was then modeled with an integrated supply chain model that was spatially explicit. This model described the optimal behavior of a biofuel industry given the constraints of fuel demand, biofuel selling price, and feedstock supply. All the analyzed scenarios achieved the 2018 RFS2 mandate at wholesale fuel prices between

The role of biomass in California's hydrogen economy

2.65 and

Impact of Air Pollution Control Costs on the Cost and Spatial Arrangement of Cellulosic Biofuel Production in the U.S.

3.78/gal of gasoline-equivalent biofuels. Between

Design of a GIS-Based Web Application for Simulating Biofuel Feedstock Yields

57.7 billion and

National Low Carbon Fuel Standard: Technical Analysis Report

140.7 billion in capital investment was required to bring the fuels to market. The results were most sensitive to the level of technological optimism and the access to waste and residue biomass resources.

Economic impact of combined torrefaction and pelletization processes on forestry biomass supply

This paper presents the results of a model of hydrogen production from waste biomass in California. We develop a profit-maximizing model of a biomass hydrogen industry from field to vehicle tank. This model is used to estimate the economic potential for hydrogen production from two waste biomass resources in Northern California—wheat straw and rice straw—taking into account the on the ground geographic dimensions of both biomass supply and hydrogen demand. The systems analysis approach allows for explicit consideration of the interactions between feedstock collection, hydrogen production, and hydrogen distribution in finding the optimal system design. This case study approach provides insight into both the real-world potential and the real-world cost of producing hydrogen from waste biomass. Additional context is provided through the estimation of Californias total waste biomass hydrogen potential. We find that enough biomass is available from waste sources to provide up to 40% of the current California passenger car fuel demand as hydrogen. Optimized supply chains result in delivered hydrogen costing between

Hybrid Poplar based Biorefinery Siting Web Application (HP-BiSWA): An online decision support application for siting hybrid poplar based biorefineries

3/kg and

Development of a biorefinery optimized biofuel supply curve for the Western United States.

5.50/kg with one-tenth of the well-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions of conventional gasoline-fueled vehicles.