The need to decrease the United States’ dependency on oil has pushed ethanol to the forefront of energy sources. In the U.S., corn is used to make ethanol. Corn-based ethanol production has been profitable over the past few years, but there has been a near doubling of corn prices in late 2006...

Government policies increasingly promote ethanol and other biofuels for security, air quality, and climate benefits. One chapter of this dissertation develops a model that links the distribution of preferences for ethanol to aggregate price responses and then estimates the model using data from...

The transportation sector is a significant contributor to current global climatic problems, one of the most prominent problems that today's society faces. In this dissertation, three complementary problems are addressed to support emissions reduction efforts by providing tools to help reduce...

Recent optimistic revisions to projections for recoverable natural gas resources in the United States have generated renewed interest in the possibility of greater utilization of natural gas as a transportation fuel. Against a backdrop of significant policy challenges for the United States,...