In its Progress Report on Biofuels the European Commission proposes a more restrictivebiofuel directive which sets a mandatory minimum share of biofuels in total fuel consumption in thetransport sector of 10% per Member State by 2020. This is likely to have a strong impact on demandfor biofuel...

Over the last few years, the prices of the main agricultural raw materials have been highly volatile. The situation is unprecedented, both in the magnitude of the upward and downward volatility observed, and in the number of agricultural commodities affected. Various factors are contributing to...

This paper discusses compliance agreements that affect the Department of Energy's (DOE) cleanup program. Compliance agreements are legally enforceable documents between DOE and its regulators, specifying cleanup activities and milestones that DOE has agreed to achieve. Over the years, these...

Performance-Based Ratemaking (PBR) is a form of utility regulation that strengthens the financial incentives to lower rates, lower costs, or improve nonprice performance relative traditional regulation, which the authors call cost-of-service, rate-of-return (COS/ROR) regulation. Although the...

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), enacted in the 1985 Farm Bill, removes environmentally sensitive cropland from production in exchange for annual rental payments from the federal government. To reduce the cost of the program, economic use of CRP acres in exchange for reduced rental...

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has prepared this report to facilitate compliance with the requirements of Section 123 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT). Section 123 requires the Department of Energy to issue recommendations for establishing state and local incentive programs...

Wetland mitigation banks are already in existence in the United States, and the number is increasing. To date, most of these banks have been created and operated for mitigation of impacts arising from highway or commercial development and have not been associated with the oil and gas industry....

At the end of the driest year on record, California faces water shortages whose impacts will be felt with progressive severity through the summer and fall of 1977. Electric power is not entirely exempt from these impacts and could, if severly affected, compound the direct distresses of the...

The energy service company (ESCO) business model could become significantly more effective by integrating the energy-efficiency purveyor and their capital into the underlying building ownership and operation partnership, rather than the current model in which the ESCO remains an outsider with...

Waste handling and disposal from hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, and production are regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through federal and state regulations and/or through implementation of federal regulations. Some wastes generated in these operations are exempt under...