Most of the increase in ethanol production in the 2008-2012 period can be attributed to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) and earlier federal energy legislation. The expansion in U.S. biofuel production, particularly ethanol, was the predominant cause of the elevated...

Forest products play an important role in supporting rural livelihoods and food security in many developing countries. Pimentel et al. (1997) found that the integrity of forests is vital to world food security, mostly because of the dependence of the poor on forest resources. Studies of the role...

Biomass is being researched as a possible alternative to fossil sources of energy, in order to avoid externalities from fossil fuel use that affect the environment and the economy. Some biomass-based energy production systems may produce unwanted externalities in their own right, such as...

This paper introduces a spatial bioeconomic model for study of potential cellulosic biomass supply at regional scale. By modeling the profitability of alternative crop production practices, it captures the opportunity cost of replacing current crops by cellulosic biomass crops. The model draws...

Energy use and it's availability, now and in the future, have been of increasing concern as the decade of the 1970's elapsed and the 1980's begin. This paper describes a farm energy audit project that addressed this concern of energy use by farms in Michigan. The objectives of this paper are...

Lignocellulosic portion of municipal solid waste (MSW) is considered a potential feedstock for fuel ethanol production. I review the trends in MSW generation, composition and disposal practices, and evaluate the aggregate and regional potential of MSW as a feedstock. I present an overview of the...

During the last several years there has been significant development in the energy situation. The present shortages and the resultant problems were not widely anticipated by the American public nor its elected leaders. Recognition of the current and possible future impacts of the energy shortage...

This paper outlines the economic surplus approach to economic impact assessment and how it may be applied to natural resource management (NRM) projects. Three challenges confront NRM impact assessment: measurement, attribution, and valuation of non-market impacts. While various methods for...

Rapidly expanding ethanol production in the U.S. was given further impetus with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandating a minimum production of 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2012. The availability of the by-product feeds of ethanol production (corn gluten feed and meal...