この論文では従来電力系統から自立的に利用出来る太陽エネルギー及び燃料電池コジェネレーションシステムの徹底的な解析が述べられている。開発した水素マイクログリッドの燃料依存を最小化にする数理モデルを利用し日本社会でのさまざまなシナリオのシミュレーションが行なわれた。こういうシステムの実現性が従来水素燃料供給方法の審査及び日本の中型離島の事例研究で評価された。経済的な分析によって石油の価格が高い遠隔な地域では水素マイクログリッドは競争力があると分かった。 / This thesis presents a thorough analysis on energy supply systems using solar energy and fuel cell cogeneration systems that can operate reliably and independently from the main power grid. A mathematical model to maximize fuel independence for hydrogen micro-grids is developed and simulated for various scenarios in Japanese communities. The viability of implementing such systems is assessed with a review of available hydrogen supply channels, and a study case for a remote Japanese island of medium size. An economic analysis of this study suggests that hydrogen micro-grids are economically competitive for energy supply in remote areas where oil prices are high. / 博士(工学) / Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

This dissertation consists of three separate but interrelated studies examining the formation and management of tax policies. The first study uses stakeholder theory (ST) to investigate the strategic management practices of the Transport for London (TfL) during discrete stages in the adoption, implementation, and amendments of the tax policy reform known as the London Congestion Charge (LCC). Results indicate that TfL has utilized power, legitimacy, and urgency as its main policy management tactics with a significant emphasis on legitimatizing the LCC and its subsequent policy amendments. The second study draws on social exchange theory (SET) to reexamine the relationship between corporations and legislators during tax policy processes. Data for the study come from publicly available political action committee (PAC) contribution activities surrounding the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA07). By examining the endogeneity between legislators’ voting patterns and PAC contributions by corporations, this study aims to refine empirical work on corporate political strategy, especially as it relates to crucial tax provisions embedded within an intensely debated policy proposal. Using simultaneous equations modeling (SEM), results are consistent with SET showing that an implicit and reciprocal relationship exists between corporations and legislators. This relationship affects the interdependence of how legislators vote for public policies and the amount of corporations’ financial contributions to legislators. The third study investigates and aims to validate the empirical applicability of Dahan’s (2005) typology of political resources in explicating the political interactions between stakeholder groups and legislators in the development of EISA07. I discuss how and why the mode of operations and various political resources employed by stakeholder groups affected the iii final EISA07 language concerning domestic production deduction tax credits for the oil and gas industry. Publicly available data show that both supporting and opposing stakeholder groups employ tactics consistent with Dahan’s (2005) typology. However, both stakeholder groups tend to use an interactive or positive political approach to gain access and favor of legislators instead of an adversarial approach. Ultimately, the tax credits were preserved. Taken as a whole, the three studies advance the tax and public policy research literature in accounting by studying how and why relevant stakeholders affect the formation and ongoing management of public and tax policies

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary C. Kingery-Page / Rural Kansas communities are almost entirely dependent on large energy corporations. These corporations, in turn, are almost completely dependent on fossil fuels for energy production. Three major implications exist within these dependencies: 1) the dependence of rural communities on large corporations reduces the potential of a local economy to support itself; 2) the dependence on fossil fuels has severe environmental impacts; and 3) fossil fuels are non-renewable resources and will inevitably be exhausted. A rural Kansas community has resources necessary to achieve and maintain energy independence in a renewable manner. The design of these systems in regard to economy, society, aesthetics, technology, and ecology will play a key role in sustaining these resources into the future. The intent of the project is to create a tool for rural communities to evaluate localized renewable energy potential using Washington, Kansas as an example. Several questions were addressed to determine the capacity and feasibility of each local energy resource: What renewable energy resources are available to a rural Kansas community and are they sufficient for the community to achieve energy independence? How can the resource or its production be designed and maintained in regard to its environmental impact and long-term viability? What are the implications of energy independence for the community’s identity? Because each question is dependent upon the answer to a previous question, a decision tree was the most viable method for the project’s analysis and development. Research into the technology and science associated with each resource provided a general knowledge of the definitions associated with and processes necessary to determine the feasibility of the resource. For resources receiving a positive feasibility rating, analysis continued with a basic cost/benefit analysis that compares potential costs involving implementation and maintenance with the payback, offsets, and incentives involved in utilizing each resource. Analysis of each feasible resource continued with site suitability analysis. The analysis of each resource resulted in resource maps showing potential implementation locations for three renewable resources studied: hydro, wind, and solar. The maps and accompanying graphics communicate the integration of renewable energy technologies into the existing community’s identity.

Master's s thesis determines potential influence of "shale miracle" observed in the U.S. since the first decade of new millennium on energy independence which has been one of the U.S. policy priorities since the 1970s' oil shocks. Technological development and innovations supported by the government triggered an unexpected and in its way unique boom, which significantly strengthened the U.S. economy. The thesis examines impact of oil crises on the U.S. energy policy, history of unconventional gas and oil extraction, and the federal involvement in energy R&D programs. Energy independence is analyzed in terms of three fundamental pillars (reducing the amount of imported oil, reducing the energy intensity of economy and increasing energy self-sufficiency). All of the models, schemes and calculations cover a period of 1973-2013. Two indicators -- improving self-sufficiency and decreasing energy intensity of the economy -- speak in favor of achievable energy independence. However, deficient energy balance suggests otherwise. In case the need to fill the gap between energy production and consumption by foreign oil imports (which have been at their historically highest values since the 1990s) remains, then a complete energy independence as well as security is just an illusion.

The United States is the world's largest oil consumer demanding about twenty five percent of the total world oil production. Whenever there are difficulties to supply the increasing quantities of oil demanded by the market, the price of oil escalates leading to what is known as oil price spikes or oil price shocks. The last oil price shock which was the longest sustained oil price run up in history, began its course in year 2004, and ended in 2008. This last oil price shock initiated recognizable changes in transportation dynamics: transit operators realized that commuters switched to transit as a way to save gasoline costs, consumers began to search the market for more efficient vehicles leading car manufactures to close 'gas guzzlers' plants, and the government enacted a new law entitled the Energy Independence Act of 2007, which called for the progressive improvement of the fuel efficiency indicator of the light vehicle fleet up to 35 miles per gallon in year 2020. The past trend of gasoline consumption will probably change; so in the context of the problem a gasoline consumption model was developed in this thesis to ascertain how some of the changes will impact future gasoline demand. Gasoline demand was expressed in oil equivalent million barrels per day, in a two steps Ordinary Least Square (OLS) explanatory variable model. In the first step, vehicle miles traveled expressed in trillion vehicle miles was regressed on the independent variables: vehicles expressed in million vehicles, and price of oil expressed in dollars per barrel. In the second step, the fuel consumption in million barrels per day was regressed on vehicle miles traveled, and on the fuel efficiency indicator expressed in miles per gallon. The explanatory model was run in EVIEWS that allows checking for normality, heteroskedasticty, and serial correlation. Serial correlation was addressed by inclusion of autoregressive or moving average error correction terms. Multicollinearity was solved by first differencing. The 36 year sample series set (1970-2006) was divided into a 30 years sub-period for calibration and a 6 year "hold-out" sub-period for validation. The Root Mean Square Error or RMSE criterion was adopted to select the "best model" among other possible choices, although other criteria were also recorded. Three scenarios for the size of the light vehicle fleet in a forecasting period up to 2020 were created. These scenarios were equivalent to growth rates of 2.1, 1.28, and about 1 per cent per year. The last or more optimistic vehicle growth scenario, from the gasoline consumption perspective, appeared consistent with the theory of vehicle saturation. One scenario for the average miles per gallon indicator was created for each one of the size of fleet indicators by distributing the fleet every year assuming a 7 percent replacement rate. Three scenarios for the price of oil were also created: the first one used the average price of oil in the sample since 1970, the second was obtained by extending the price trend by exponential smoothing, and the third one used a longtime forecast supplied by the Energy Information Administration. The three scenarios created for the price of oil covered a range between a low of about 42 dollars per barrel to highs in the low 100's. The 1970-2006 gasoline consumption trend was extended to year 2020 by ARIMA Box-Jenkins time series analysis, leading to a gasoline consumption value of about 10 millions barrels per day in year 2020. This trend line was taken as the reference or baseline of gasoline consumption. The savings that resulted by application of the explanatory variable OLS model were measured against such a baseline of gasoline consumption. Even on the most pessimistic scenario the savings obtained by the progressive improvement of the fuel efficiency indicator seem enough to offset the increase in consumption that otherwise would have occurred by extension of the trend, leaving consumption at the 2006 levels or about 9 million barrels per day. The most optimistic scenario led to savings up to about 2 million barrels per day below the 2006 level or about 3 millions barrels per day below the baseline in 2020. The "expected" or average consumption in 2020 is about 8 million barrels per day, 2 million barrels below the baseline or 1 million below the 2006 consumption level. More savings are possible if technologies such as plug-in hybrids that have been already implemented in other countries take over soon, are efficiently promoted, or are given incentives or subsidies such as tax credits. The savings in gasoline consumption may in the future contribute to stabilize the price of oil as worldwide demand is tamed by oil saving policy changes implemented in the United States.