Agricultural production can degrade water sources through leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural land to surface and ground water sources. To minimize the pollution from agricultural production, the U.S. Department of Agriculture promotes adoption of conservation practices....

Why are some economies likely to grow more slowly when facing natural resource windfalls? What are the causes and consequences of the so-called natural resource curse? These are commonly asked questions in the economics literature, where different studies have address them using different...

One of the most important groundwater problems in Oregon, Washington and Idaho is the long-term decline of the groundwater surface level, which has been intensified by wells through discharging water from aquifers. Groundwater contamination from agriculture aggravates the depletion problem in...

This research estimates the costs of the mitigation measures adopted in the San Joaquin Valley in California to reduce Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emissions from dairies. Using farm-level data, I estimated the effects of the mitigation measures on feed, labor, and other operating costs.

Both the goal of energy independence and the desire to lower greenhouse gas emission have triggered the search for alternate energy sources. For second generation biofuel production, a key question is which form of industrial organization should be adopted in order to stimulate stable feedstock...

This study examines the convergence of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions among a panel of U.S. states between the period 1960-2009. This examination is carried out by means of a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, we conduct a novel regression-based convergence test. Unlike previous...

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs) have been enacted in 29 states in the US, in part to encourage an increase in the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources. Biomass can be utilized in a dedicated bio-power plant to generate electricity, co-fired with coal at an existing power...