Browsing by Author "Rasul, Zarif I., author"

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Open Access
Three essays on the economics of energy, water, and pollution
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Rasul, Zarif I., author; Burkhardt, Jesse, advisor; Suter, Jordan, committee member; Manning, Dale, committee member; Carter, Ellison, committee member
This dissertation covers three policy-oriented topics in environmental economics. The first chapter explores the short-term impacts of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports on the domestic natural gas and electricity markets. Using a structural vector autoregression framework, we find that unexpected LNG exports corresponded to a 34% price increase in domestic natural gas spot prices in 2022. We illustrate the impact of this price increase on the electricity market by constructing counterfactual dispatch curves for Texas. Had gas prices not increased by 34% in 2022, our results indicate that NOx, SO2, and CO2 emissions from electricity generation in Texas would have been lower by 11.2%, 47%, and 10.7% respectively. The second chapter explores whether utilities can use pro-social appeals to influence residential water consumption by evaluating a program implemented by Denver Water. The program aimed to influence both the timing and volume of residential consumption to eliminate peaking by asking different customer groups to water their lawns on alternate days. Using difference-in-difference models, we find that while the timing of outdoor watering remains unchanged, there is weak evidence that one group of households water on assigned days while another does not, but overall we find no evidence of a significant average treatment effect. These results support previous findings that non-price interventions that include conservation tips or pro-social appeals have little or no impact, as opposed to interventions that contain some element of social comparisons or other incentives. The third chapter investigates the impact of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) on ammonia and methane concentrations across the United States, leveraging ground-level monitoring data for ammonia and satellite-based observations for methane. For ammonia, we find that wind direction and proximity to CAFOs within 10 km significantly influence concentrations. Additionally, the impact varies by CAFO type. Methane concentrations are similarly elevated in grids containing CAFOs, with the presence of shale plays and seasonal variations also playing significant roles. Our findings underscore the local environmental impacts of CAFOs, while also highlighting the challenges of isolating these effects from other sources.