<p>Wind and solar generation are intermittent generation sources. System integration costs include the costs of spinning reserves, increased transmission costs and storage costs. The overarching research problem examines evaluation of different policies that lead to high penetration of intermittent renewable electricity sources. The first research question examined the emissions reduction benefits and system integration costs of policy mandates for high penetration of intermittent renewable electricity technologies for Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO). The second research question examines the total systems costs of mandates for renewable electricity generation and a carbon tax using a TIMES model for MISO. The third research question examined the emissions and costs of policy mandates for high penetration of wind and solar electricity generation technologies for MISO when short-term operational constraints are considered. TIMES minimizes the total system cost subject to constraints of capacity activity, commodity use, satisfying demand, and peaking reserve. The US EPA 9 region model contains end use technologies for commercial, industrial, residential and transport sectors. The technologies that do not serve end use demands with electricity have been removed. The number of time slices which are the time divisions of the year was increased to 288 to help capture wind and solar generation dynamics at higher levels of penetration and help better understand spinning reserves requirements and costs. Based on the candidate sites for solar and wind generation, the costs include expected transmission costs, and any investment and production costs specific to the candidate sites costs.</p> <p>The results show that as the level of the mandate for wind and solar generation increases, their costs increased. Emissions saving from the mandates were converted to reductions in the Social Costs of Emissions (SCE) (See Section 2.4.4 for the definition) to compare system cost to with the savings in SCE. The savings in the SCE increase as the level of the mandate increases. However, the savings in SCE do not justify the system cost increases associated with the mandates. </p> <p>The carbon tax and mandate policies implemented held the overall emission reductions constant where a 35% reduction of CO2e emissions from 2020 levels by 2050 in compared to the reference scenario. The carbon tax (Policy I) had the lower of Levelized Marginal Cost of Electricity (LMCOE) (discounted value of generation for a year based on the generation weighted Marginal Cost of Electricity), while the mandate (Policy II) had the higher of LMCOE. Similarly, Policy I had the lowest of discounted total system cost and Policy II had higher discounted total system cost. </p> <p>The cost to society is underestimated when short-term operational constraints are ignored. The addition of short-term operational constraints led to increased total systems cost and greater emissions savings as the level of the mandate increased. Adding short-term operating constraints also gives a more complete understating of CO2e emissions savings for the different scenarios as there is a decrease in coal generation and increase in natural gas generation led to increased CO2e emissions savings. The addition of short-term operational constraints shows on one hand the impact of the policy and on the other hand the consequences of not including some of the cost realities.</p>

In 1959 there were 49,006 acres of corn grown in the state of Utah. Included in this were 4,232 acres of grain corn, 38,770 acres of silage corn , and 4,470 acres of sweet corn. The remaining acres of corn were used for pasture, cut as fodder, or any miscellaneous use.

The state of Utah is located in a semi-arid climatic zone and contains about 52.7 million acres of land which varies topographically from smooth desert plains and valleys to steep mountain ranges (8).

A study was undertaken to evaluate the general sheep marketing process in Bolivia, to determine the present economic structure of farm units belonging to Altiplano sheep producers, to analyze the economics of marketing Altiplano sheep at an earlier age, and to analyze the economics of using various local products as a supplemental sheep feed in Bolivia. In general the Bolivian sheep marketing process is inadequate and inefficient because of lack of marketing information, poor producer-buyer contact, lack of commercial sheep transportation, slaughterhouses lacking in facilities and hygienic conditions, and apparently unattractive retail methods. By selling their relatively unproductive male sheep before they are one year old and replacing them with ewes and yearling ewes, the results of the study indicate that the "criollo" and semi-improved sheep producers could increase the return to their sheep enterprise by 43 percent and 10 percent, respectively, and that they could increase the value of sheep available for sale or trade by 67 per cent and 13 percent, respectively. To help determine the economics of feeding sheep a supplemental ration in Bolivia, a sheep feeding experiment was des1gned to test three breed-types of sheep, and two roughage-to-concentrate ratios. Two hundred and thirty-five lambs were fed for 63 days. The results of the study indicate that fattening lambs commercially in Bolivia is potentially profitable.

<p>The Grand River and its tributaries drain an area of over 2,000 square miles, in south-western Ontario between Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario. The area includes the present-day counties of Brant and Waterloo, and the adjoining parts of Wellington, Oxford, Wentworth, Haldimand, and Halton. It is one of the most fertile regions in Ontario, with a variety of soil types, mostly clay loams and a relatively mild climate. In Brant county, about 11 miles south of the town of Brantford, lies the township of Tuscarora, the Reserve of the Six Nations Indians, and all that remains of their original land grant, which extended almost the whole length of the Grand River. The type of agriculture and land use in Tuscarora presents a striking contrast to the conditions in the surrounding townships, which have been settled by non-Indian people. Large areas of the Reserve lie unused and are under either rough grass, scrub, or woodland, and little land is being used for agriculture. This study is an enquiry into the poverty of the Reserve, as reflected in the land use. The enquiry has three aims. First, the history of settlement and land use on the Reserve since the end of the eighteenth century is considered, to discover whether the present day poverty has its roots in the past. Secondly, a comparison is made between the trends in agricultural development in Tuscarora and those in the neighbouring townships of Oneida, to see whether these conditions have persisted since the Reserve was first established. Thirdly, an investigation is made of soil conditions as a contributing factor to the present day poverty of the Reserve.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

The issue of gaining access to enough water in California has shaped how the state has developed and it has been one of the most important and divisive political issues for all of its residents. In a state where “75 percent of the demand for water originates south of Sacramento, although 75 percent of water supply in the state comes from north of the capital city,” the decision of who should get access to the limited supply of water is fiercely contested between opposing parties who all feel that they have a right to the water necessary to keep them alive. But with the amount of useable water slowly declining and an ever-growing population with greater demand for water, there is no easy compromise or solution that solves the problem of how water should be distributed.

<p>This dissertation examines the seasonal round of st Lucian contract workers who travel to Ontario every year for temporary employment in the Foreign Agricultural Resources Management Service program (FARMS). The study's focus is divided among Ontario growers as employers, st Lucian agricultural workers as employees, residents of a rural town in Southwestern Ontario, and governmental departments that influence the FARMS program in Canada and in st Lucia. The main argument of the dissertation is that labour migration has been an integral part of st Lucian history since emancipation on the island. It is both an economic strategy and a symbol of the freedom emancipation promised. While factors external to the island, such as the need for agricultural labour in Ontario and a long history of connections between Canada and the British West Indies influence where st Lucians travel, the propensity of these men and women to leave the island and return can only be explained in terms of st Lucia's history as a British colony. Within this history, labour migration emerges in conjunction with other strategies of enduring yet resisting the plantation economy that characterized the island for centuries. Although "workin' on the contract" in Canada is used by st Lucians for individual social and economic goals, it derives its meaning from the shared cultural beliefs and values of the island's society.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Much of the literature on herbicide resistant weeds suggests that farmers do not adopt resistance management practices on rented land to the same extent as on owned land. This study uses data from the USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey for corn and soybeans to compare adoption of resistance management practices on owned and rented land analyzing national and regional data for a variety of weed management practices. There was little support for the hypothesis that renters adopted resistance management practices less than owners. In most cases, there was no significant difference in adoption rates. In cases where there were statistically significant differences, it was more common that resistance management practice adoption was higher on rented land than on owned land. The second part of this study estimated a hazard model to predict when resistance to glyphosate would first be detected in corn fields in a state. The model was used to test hypotheses about whether adoption of different weed management practices delayed or sped up the onset of resistance. The analysis found evidence that greater use of phosphinic acid herbicides (the herbicide family that includes glyphosate) sped up the onset of glyphosate resistant weeds.

Traditional factors known to affect feeder cattle prices, such as corn prices, have been questioned recently given the volatile nature of agricultural markets and some recent research findings. This work utilizes two very current and unique datasets to examine feeder cattle pricing relationships from Kentucky internet auctions and Certified Preconditioned for Health (CPH) sales. In addition to examining traditional pricing factors, factors that affect feeder cattle basis were also examined. Basis questions are of great interest in the southeast as transportation costs to major cattle feeding areas have been impacted by rising fuel prices and increased market volatility. Finally, price premiums were examined for cattle selling as age and source verified and natural. Results suggested that traditional factors were still found to influence feeder cattle prices, with some evidence that the magnitude of these effects may be smaller. Basis factors were found to be relevant; specifically fuel price was found to have a negative effect on basis in internet sales. This finding was also consistent with weaker basis in areas further away from the Midwest. Finally, premiums for age and source verification were moderate, roughly $11 per head for age and source verified calves, $17 per head for natural calves, and about $32 per head for cattle with both attributes.

This dissertation provides the analysis necessary to launch the first direct climate markets. Combining statistical modeling with qualitative interviews, I build off of an innovative insurance project to show why and how to start traded markets on indexes of El Niño/La Niña. I provide statistical models of El Niño/La Niña's worldwide economic impacts; a stochastic catalog used to price virtually any risk management contract on El Niño/La Niña, even as new forecasts change traders' expectations; a comprehensive statistical description of the lifecycle of new derivatives showing how the prospects for new derivatives changed fundamentally in the last decade (this work is co-authored by Michael Penick, Senior Economist at the US government's derivatives regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission); and, interviews with risk management professionals at businesses facing El Niño/La Niña risk and financial firms interested in trading that risk. Based on this analysis, I conclude that catastrophe bonds settling on NOAA's Niño 3.4 sea surface temperatures can, and likely will, launch in the near future.