The energy security and climate change risks of fossil fuel consumption have stimulated interest in developing renewable energy sources. Canada’s vast biomass potential is an attractive local resource but high transportation costs are a barrier to implementation. This study assesses how transformative systems can enable large-scale bioenergy production through integration with existing transportation corridors and fossil fuel infrastructure. Potential bioenergy corridors include the network of natural gas pipelines and the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway (GLSLS). Sustainable lignocellulosic biomass production integrated with traditional food and fibre production was assumed to occur on 196 Mha of land within 100 km of pipelines. Conservative (81 Mt of dry biomass per year) and aggressive (209 Mt) scenarios were investigated for converting biomass to synthetic natural gas (SNG) via gasification, methanation, and upgrading, yielding enough pipeline-quality gas to meet 20% to 60% of Canada’s current needs. A systems analysis approach was used to calculate bioSNG life-cycle emissions of 15 to 18 kgCO2e GJ-1, compared to 68 or 87 for conventional or liquefied natural gas, respectively. Production costs ranged from $16 to $20 GJ-1, which were high compared to regional gas prices ($5 to $10 GJ-1). The biomass potential on 125 Mha of land area within 100 km of the Canadian portion of the GLSLS and railway lines ranged from 36 to 80 Mt(dry) per year, which was enough to displace coal-fired power in Ontario plus produce 1.6 to 11 billion L of green diesel that could offset 14% to 96% of fossil diesel in GLSLS provinces. Life-cycle emissions ranged from 110 to 130 gCO2e kWh-1 for biopower (compared to 1030 for coal) and 20 to 22 kgCO2e GJ-1 for green diesel (compared to 84 for conventional diesel). Cost estimates ranged from $130 MWh-1 for biopower (compared to an average market power price of $54 MWh-1) and $28 to $36 GJ-1 for green diesel (compared to $16 to $24 GJ-1 for diesel). The auxiliary benefits (energy security, climate change, air quality, and rural development) were seen as justification for supportive bioenergy policies. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-09 15:24:18.389

This thesis discusses the potential for private investment to fund ambitious renewable energy research and development to help mitigate climate change. I begin by discussing the threat of global warming and a brief history of renewable energy development in the United States. Next, I discuss existing avenues for private investment in renewable energy, potential methods of increasing corporate participation, and the belief that businesses must maximize only financial profits. Then I perform an in-depth case study of pension funds that have incorporated a social or environmental mission, existing environmentally focused mutual funds, and liquidated clean energy mutual funds. Finally, I compare the historical performance of the existing mutual funds to the liquidated to determine a profit threshold below which clean energy focused funds fail and discuss optimal investment strategies to foster bold renewable energy investment.

Although capitalism is usually seen as the culprit for many of the environmental issues society faces today, it is not necessarily at fault. The Seven Deadly Sins of Sustainability: Pride, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, and Envy, are the underlying reasons why capitalism fails in the face of sustainability. Through recognition of these human vices, better strategies can be used to address environmental issues through leveraging capitalistic economic solutions.

Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

“Earth, Air, Water, Oil: Regulating Fracking in the Monterey Shale with Health and Environment in Mind,” explores how hydraulic fracturing regulation in California’s oil-rich Monterey Shale will impact regional public health, including groundwater and air quality. This is achieved through a combination of case study and policy analysis on both the state and national level.

Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Government is constantly attempting to balance the competing interests within society, and is itself active in a variety of different roles. The conflict between these roles becomes particularly clear when an attempt is made to implement a "regulatory market" - that is a market that exists only because of government action- such as an electricity or environmental market - to implement some policy objective, since it is the nature of markets to candidly reveal weaknesses that in a non-market management framework may have remained hidden for some time. This thesis examines the difficulty that government has in setting market rules that implement an efficient market design for such markets. After examining the history and development of the Australian Electricity Industry market reform process, we examine more closely some of the electricity related environmental markets developed specifically to drive a policy outcome in Australia -- in particular the Australian Mandatory Renewable Energy Target Market (MRET) and the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme. By comparing these environmental markets with established financial markets, and using the techniques of experimental economics, we show that these environmental markets have significant inefficiencies in their design. We argue that these come about because lessons from the financial markets have not be learned by those implementing environmental markets, that stakeholders are lobbying for market design characteristics that are not in fact in their own best interests, and that governments struggle to manage the divergent pressure upon them. For example, in MRET we show experimentally that one of the market design characteristics most fought for by generators (the ability to create renewable energy certificates from qualifying energy without declaring the certificates to the market until a later time of the creator's choosing) in fact leads to market volatility, and ultimately inefficiently low prices. We also examine the impact on the overall MRET market of simple rule changes upon market performance. Key conclusions of this thesis are that it is more difficult than has been appreciated to successfully use a market to implement public policy and that important lessons have not yet been learned from the existing financial markets.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Political Science and Public Administration. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Final working paper, submitted to Office of Data Policy, Federal Energy Administration in connection with A Study of information systems to provide leading indicators of energy sufficiency, (FEA Contract no. 14-01-001-2040).

Energy and its policy has been a priority for the EU since its establishment. The EU indicates the competitiveness, sustainability and security of supply to be the core pillars of energy policy, which guide energy projects and their implementations in the EU territory. Nonetheless, disagreements and different opinions on the natural gas transmission pipeline Nord Stream 2 reveal that the solidarity in terms of energy policy is not apparent. Hence, the purpose of this study is to reveal how the framings of the project are constructed by the most vocal actors - the EU institutions, Germany, Poland and Russia – in order to indicate implications of the frames to the future of the project and the EUenergy policy. The purpose of the study is achieved by adopting energy security concept as theoretical lens and frame analysis as a primary method of research. The study reveals that the actors frame the project in terms of energy security dimensions and energy security logics. The study concludes that the actors prioritize security of supply pillar to the largest extent and thus it poses complications to attain a currently core element of the EU energy policy – sustainability, and implement the NS2 project due to the lack of solidarity among actors.