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The article presents a commentary on bioenergy in a global environment. The author mentions some papers focusing on biofuels and the effects of the industry on economic stability, global food prices, and climate change. The author comments on the papers and renders perspectives on the U.S. bioenergy sector and its policies.

Small island developing States ( SIDS) have narrow resource bases and are usually extremely reliant on fossil fuel based energy for transport and electricity generation. These island economies are thus particularly vulnerable to the impacts of peak oil and also to climate change, impacts which are likely to not only hamper economic development but also adversely affect the quality of life of local inhabitants. In order to reduce the vulnerability of SIDS to peak oil, an urgent transition to renewable sources of energy is necessary. This paper propounds that the reform of power sector that took place in Caribbean and Pacific SIDS (particularly between 1970 and 2000) should have been viewed as an opportunity to re-orient power producers away from the proclivity to utilise conventional fossil fuel uses. Reasons why reform measures did not result in a substantive transition are put forward. Moreover, recommendations towards facilitating a transition to renewable energy in the power sector through future reforms are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper sets a broad agenda touching several areas of policy. It starts from the least likely policy at this point of time, the use of the tax system for redistribution. It discusses prudent macroeconomic coordination without the strings of the Maastricht Treaty in business troughs. Regulation of financial markets, agricultural policies, and health issues are coming up on a desirable agenda of the United States, but are probably important for all countries, as are social security policy and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether changes in weather have random effects on crop yields. The data are yield series of several crops for the United States, individual major producing states, and major producing areas. Statistical tests show little evidence of nonrandomness in these series. There is almost no evidence of cycles or bunchiness prior to 1932, none for national average yields or the weighted average for major producing areas. Since 1932 there is some evidence of autocorrelation; however, this appears to reflect the uneven application rate of high yielding inputs, such as fertilizer and hybrid seed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My late colleague and friend Alfred Kahn relayed how President Jimmy Carter hired him in 1977 to head the Civil Aeronautics Board to reform and ultimately deregulate the US airline industry. Accepting the job, he told a group of airline executives (to their fury), 'I really don't know one plane from the other. To me they are all marginal costs with wings.' He used that term to signal his intention of reforming the industry in keeping with economic principles, uninfluenced by the romance of air travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, climate change is likely to increase average daily temperatures and the frequency of heat waves, which can reduce meat and milk production in animals. Methods that livestock producers use to mitigate thermal stress—including modifications to animal management or housing—tend to increase production costs. We use operation-level economic data coupled with finely-scaled climate data to estimate how the local thermal environment affects the technical efficiency of dairies across the United States. We then use this information to estimate the possible decline in milk production in 2030 resulting from climate change-induced heat stress under the simplifying assumptions that the production technology, location of production, and other factors are held constant. For four climate model scenarios, the results indicate modest heat-stress-related production declines by 2030, with the largest declines occurring in the southern states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is potentially one of the most affected resources as climate changes. Though knowledge and understanding has steadily evolved about the nature and extent of many of the physical effects of possible climate change on water resources, much less is known about the economic responses and impacts that may emerge. Methods and results are presented that examine and quantify many of the important economic consequences of possible climate change on U.S. water resources. At the core of the assessment is the simulation of multiple climate change scenarios in economic models of four watersheds. These Water Allocation and Impact Models (Water-AIM) simulate the effects of modeled runoff changes under various climate change scenarios on the spatial and temporal dimensions of water use, supply, and storage and on the magnitude and distribution of economic consequences. One of the key aspects and contributions of this approach is the capability of capturing economic response and adaptation behavior of water users to changes in water scarcity. By reflecting changes in the relative scarcity (and value) of water, users respond by changing their patterns of water use, intertemporal storage in reservoirs, and changes in the pricing of water. The estimates of economic welfare change that emerge from the Water-AIM models are considered lower-bound estimates owing to the conservative nature of the model formulation and key assumptions. The results from the Water-AIM models form the basis for extrapolating impacts to the national level. Differences in the impacts across the regional models are carried through to the national assessment by matching the modeled basins with basins with similar geographical, climatic, and water use characteristics that have not been modeled and by using hydrologic data across all U.S. water resources regions. The results from the national analysis show that impacts are borne to a great extent by nonconsumptive users that... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines issues affecting the impact of climate change on agriculture in the United States. Farm-level impacts; Regional impacts on agriculture; Importance of carbon dioxide fertilization.

Provides an economic perspective on global climate changes and agriculture. Role of economics in climate change research; Analysis of climate change effects on U.S. agriculture; Policy implications.