Research Recap: Funding research rather than mandating consumption might be a more effective method for renewable fuel policy

Publication title

Designing Climate Policy: Lessons from the Renewable Fuel Standard and the Blend Wall

Disciplines represented:

Climate change, agricultural policy, food policy, government policy, renewable fuel policy, environmental policy, energy policy

Schools/contributing organizations:

• The Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University
• Department of Economics and the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University
• Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Davis

Co-authors:

• Gabriel E. Lade, assistant professor, Iowa State University
• C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, associate professor and the Robert Dyson Sesquicentennial Chair in Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics, Cornell University
• Aaron Smith, professor, University of California at Davis

Summary:

A paper co-authored by Dyson School associate professor C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell critically examines the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and makes recommendations for future policy. Lin Lawell, Iowa State University assistant professor Gabriel E. Lade, and University of California at Davis professor Aaron Smith recommend (1) incorporating uncertainty into rulemaking and (2) implementing multi-year rulemaking that allows for longer periods between major regulatory decisions. The authors also provide two more general recommendations: (3) tie waiver authority to compliance costs or include cost containment provisions, and (4) fund research and development of new technologies directly rather than mandating them.

Publication information:

“Designing Climate Policy: Lessons from the Renewable Fuel Standard and the Blend Wall” was published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics on Jan. 11, 2018.

Read the full paper in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.