Resources Radio

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Harvard University Professor David Keith about solar geoengineering. Keith describes the variety of ways that solar geoengineering could work; some of its risks at local, regional, and global scales; recent small-scale experiments; and what might be needed to deploy a larger-scale research program. Raimi and Keith also discuss public policies related to potential deployment technologies, including the substantial issues surrounding governance and geopolitics. References and recommendations: "Inner Ranges" by Geoff Powter; https://rmbooks.com/book/inner-ranges/ "Pilgrims of the Vertical" by Joseph E. Taylor III; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674052871 "Environmental Insights" podcast with Robert Stavins; https://scholar.harvard.edu/stavins/environmental-insights-podcast

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks about carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) with Julio Friedmann, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Friedmann gives an overview of the status of CCUS deployment worldwide, describes the costs of CCUS relative to other approaches for reducing emissions, and notes some emerging federal policies that aim to increase deployment of CCUS in the United States. References and recommendations: "Capturing Investment: Policy Design to Finance CCUS Projects in the US Power Sector" by Julio Friedmann, Emeka Ochu, and Jeffrey D. Brown; https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/capturing-investment-policy-design-finance-ccus-projects-us-power-sector "To Tackle Climate Change, the (Industrial) Heat Is On" by Julio Friedmann; https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-21/amid-climate-change-the-heat-is-on-heavy-industry-to-decarbonize "Low-Carbon Heat Solutions for Heavy Industry: Sources, Options, and Costs Today" by Julio Friedmann, Zhiyuan Fan, and Ke Tang; https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/low-carbon-heat-solutions-heavy-industry-sources-options-and-costs-today "Engineers of Victory" by Paul Kennedy; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/91616/engineers-of-victory-by-paul-kennedy/ "Innovation and Its Enemies" by Calestous Juma; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/innovation-and-its-enemies-9780190467036?cc=us&lang=en& "45Q&A" blog series about the 45Q tax credit for CCUS; https://www.resourcesmag.org/common-resources/45q-series-comments-45q-tax-credit-carbon-capture-utilization-and-storage-ccus/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ellen Gilinsky about Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, which refers to the 2015 Clean Water Rule that defined the scope of federal water protection, particularly for streams and wetlands that share a hydrologic system with "navigable waters." Gilinsky was the associate deputy assistant administrator for water at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); she is an expert on all things WOTUS. Raimi and Gilinsky discuss why WOTUS is so important for federal regulation of surface waters; why the waters that fall under regulation are so tricky to define; and how the Trump administration has sought to change the definitions, with implications that reduce regulation. Just last week, EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers published their Navigable Waters Protection Rule to change the definition of WOTUS and "navigable waters," demarcating four categories for waters under jurisdiction. The new rule becomes effective on June 22 this year, although lawsuits already are challenging it. References and recommendations: "Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity" by Sandra Postel; https://islandpress.org/books/replenish "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567281/where-the-crawdads-sing-deluxe-edition-by-delia-owens/ "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/323685/cadillac-desert-by-marc-reisner/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Maureen Cropper, an economics professor at the University of Maryland and senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). Raimi asks Maureen about a paper she recently coauthored, which takes a retrospective look at the Clean Air Act, as this year we mark the 50th anniversary of its 1970 amendments. With more than 50 years of data since the original Clean Air Act came into existence in 1963, Cropper et al.'s new paper reviews how the law has been implemented, drawing out key lessons and research questions that we may be able to apply to good effect in the next 50 years. References and recommendations: "Looking Back at Fifty Years of the Clean Air Act" by Joseph E. Aldy, Maximilian Auffhammer, Maureen L. Cropper, Arthur G. Fraas, and Richard D. Morgenstern; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/looking-back-at-fifty-years-of-the-clean-air-act/ Fall 2019 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (vol. 33, no. 4), which focuses in part on the fiftieth anniversary of the Clean Air and Water Acts; https://www.aeaweb.org/issues/568 "What Do Economists Have to Say about the Clean Air Act 50 Years after the Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency?" by Janet Currie and Reed Walker; https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.3 "Policy Evolution under the Clean Air Act" by Richard Schmalensee and Robert N. Stavins; https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.27 "US Water Pollution Regulation over the Past Half Century: Burning Waters to Crystal Springs?" by David A. Keiser and Joseph S. Shapiro; https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.51 Purple Air, a personal monitor for real-time air-quality assessments; https://www2.purpleair.com/

In this week's episode, Kristin Hayes talks with Mary Evans and Matthew Kotchen, two of the authors on a new study published in the journal "Science" last week, which takes a critical look at how the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently updated the benefit-cost analysis of its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS. At the risk of skipping to the punchline, the paper's authors suggest that EPA’s analysis is seriously flawed. Evans and Kotchen discuss why they and their colleagues reached this conclusion, what the perceived flaws in the analysis could mean for human health and the environment, and how EPA and the Trump administration should proceed from here. References and recommendations: "Deep flaws in a mercury regulatory analysis" by Joseph Aldy, Matthew Kotchen, Mary Evans, Meredith Fowlie, Arik Levinson, and Karen Palmer; https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/08/science.aba7932 "Lead pollution tracks the rise and fall of medieval kings" by Ann Gibbons; https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6486/19 DJ D-Nice spinning on Instagram Live with Club Quarantine; https://www.instagram.com/dnice

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with RFF Senior Fellow Alan Krupnick about the value of a statistical life, or VSL. As we all try to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, some analysts have started to ask the question, How much economic pain is appropriate to withstand to protect public health? The question is studded with ethical and moral land mines that, to some extent, VSL helps to address. In today’s episode, Krupnick takes us through the history of the VSL concept, different methods for calculating VSL, and how VSL might (or might not) be applied in today’s rapidly changing world. References and recommendations: "Mengele: Unmasking the 'Angel of Death'" by David G. Marwell; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393609530

This week, Daniel Raimi talks with Stephanie La Hoz Theuer, a senior project manager at adelphi, an environmental think tank, as well as a member of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) Secretariat. Each year, ICAP releases a valuable report on the status of emissions trading around the world, and the 2020 report was released just last week. In this episode, La Hoz Theuer provides updates on emissions trading policies around the world, including Europe, North America, Asia, and elsewhere. She and Raimi also discuss other policies that countries are deploying to reduce emissions, including in non-energy sectors such as agriculture. References and recommendations: "Emissions Trading Worldwide: Status Report 2020" by the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP); https://icapcarbonaction.com/en/icap-status-report-2020 "An amateur Chinese marathon runner under coronavirus lockdown ran 31 miles in his living room to pass the time"; https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-man-under-coronavirus-lockdown-runs-31-miles-living-room-2020-2 "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533557 "Collapse" by Jared Diamond; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/288954/collapse-by-jared-diamond/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with RFF senior fellow Margaret Walls. Along with coauthors Patrick Lee and Matthew Ashenfarb, Walls published a study last week on the economic impacts that result from the establishment of national monuments. The study looks at how the designation of a national monument affects businesses and employment in the surrounding area. While some have argued that monuments stifle economic activity by making land off-limits to extractive activities like oil and gas drilling, others argue that national monuments generate growth in other industries, such as tourism. In their new study, Walls and colleagues provide answers. References and recommendations: "National monuments and economic growth in the American West" by Margaret Walls, Patrick Lee, and Matthew Ashenfarb; https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/12/eaay8523 "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/323685/cadillac-desert-by-marc-reisner/ "The Source" by Martin Doyle; https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Source "Nuclear explained: Where our uranium comes from" by the US Energy Information Administration; https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/where-our-uranium-comes-from.php

This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Amy Myers Jaffe about what has been unfolding in world oil markets over the past week, as the coronavirus, or COVID-19, continues to spread and radically impact human lives and the global economy. Jaffe is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment and director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a leading expert on global energy policy, geopolitical risk, energy, and sustainability.

This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Carolyn Kousky, the executive director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Kousky is a university fellow at Resources for a future and was a fellow at RFF for a number of years. Kousky's research has examined multiple aspects of disaster insurance markets, the National Flood Insurance Program, federal disaster aid and response, and policy responses to potential changes in extreme events with climate change. In this episode, Hayes and Kousky discuss resilience to natural disasters such as flooding and wildfire, whether the current US system of funding for that resilience is working (and for whom), and what other options for responding to natural disasters the United States might want to consider. References and recommendations: "Insuring Nature" by Carolyn Kousky and Sarah E. Light; https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3481896 "The Cure for Catastrophe" by Robert Muir-Wood; https://oneworld-publications.com/the-cure-for-catastrophe-hb.html