Cornell Climate Change

Program or topic

Carbon cap-and-trade policy costs and benefits, particularly in relation to agriculture, forestry, and other land uses.

Department(s) or unit(s)

Applied Economics and Management

Contact information

Antonio Bento
Associate Professor
amb396@cornell.edu

Program goals

Economic analyses relevant to carbon cap-and-trade policies, particularly in the agriculture and forestry sectors. One aspect has been developing an integrated framework to examine the economic costs, land use impacts, and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from alternative biofuels policies under the 2007 Energy Bill.

Brief Description

Our biofuels project examines the effects of three policies: (a) gradual increases in the federal mandates for corn-based ethanol and cellulosic biofuels; (b) the volumetric tax credit to encourage the production of ethanol; and (c) subsidies to promote a faster adoption of more efficient and cleaner biofuel technologies.

By capturing the interactions between the relevant agents in the economy (households, landowners, ethanol producers, regular gasoline refiners, and food producers), our framework will be the first to provide a complete picture of the potential impacts of biofuel policies and allow us to estimate the overall costs and to describe distributional impacts of these three policies to the different agents in the economy.

This framework will also be useful to compute the overall greenhouse gas emissions resulting from biofuels policies. Comparisons between standard greenhouse gas estimates based on life-cycle models, which don’t account for land use adjustments resulting from biofuels policies, will be compared against our results.

For more information

• Antonio Bento’s profile page
• Vivo impact statement
• Video: The Heat Is On: Biofuels and Climate Change

Program or topic

Breeding and genomics for increased yield of shrub willow bioenergy crops

Department(s) or unit(s)

Dept. of Horticulture

Contact information

Larry Smart, Associate Professor
lbs33@cornell.edu

Program goals

Develop of new varieties of shrub willow for bioenergy crops that produce higher yields with low inputs on marginal agricultural land.

Brief Description

There are great opportunities to grow dedicated bioenergy crops on marginal or underutilized land in the Northeast and Midwest. Fast-growing shrub willow is one of the sustainable perennial crops that is very well suited for this purpose.

Willow stems are harvested every three years and the plants resprout after each cutback, making willow fields productive for more than 20 years. Woody biomass from willow can be used as a sustainable, locally-produced, carbon-neutral fuel for production of renewable heat, power, and biofuels.

My research program is focused on the development of new varieties of shrub willow that produce higher yields with low inputs on marginal agricultural land. We have bred and commercialized novel species hybrids with at least 20% greater yield and improved pest and disease resistance.

I am also leading a project to have the willow genome sequenced by the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Initiative, providing a database of genetic information to speed the breeding program and expand our understanding of woody plant biology.

For more information

Web links:

Larry Smart’s profile page

Double A Willow

Willowpedia

Publications:

• Smart, L.B. and Cameron, K.D. (2012) Shrub willow. In Kole, C., Joshi, C. P., and Shonnard, D. R. (eds.) Handbook of Bioenergy Crop Plants, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL. pp. 687-708. http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439816844
• Lee S.J., Warnick T.A., Pattathil S., Alvelo-Maurosa J.G., Serapiglia M.J., McCormick H., Brown V., Young N.F., Schnell D.J., Smart L.B., Hahn M.G., Pedersen J.F., Leschine S.B., Hazen S.P. (2012) Biological conversion assay using Clostridium phytofermentans to estimate plant feedstock quality. Biotech. Biofuels 5:1-14. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3348094/?tool=pubmed
• Puckett, E. E., Serapiglia, M. J., DeLeon, A. M., Long, S., Minocha, R., & Smart, L. B. (2012) Differential expression of genes encoding phosphate transporters contributes to arsenic tolerance and accumulation in shrub willow (Salix spp.). Environ. Exper. Bot. 75:248-257. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0098847211001717

Program or topic

Cornell Initiative for Sustainable Bioenergy Crops (CISBC)

Department(s) or unit(s)

Dept. Plant Biology

Contact information

Dr. Jocelyn Rose
Director of the Cornell Initiative for Sustainable Bioenergy Crops (CISBC)
331 Emerson Hall
jr286@cornell.edu; 607-2554781

Program goals

The mission of the CISBC is to promote the development of effective long-term agroenergy cropping systems, which will require the collaboration of many plant science disciplines. These include, but are not limited to, breeding, physiology, pathology, genetics, biotechnology and ecology. In addition, this multidisciplinary consortium must engage with other fields of expertise, including process engineering and applied economics.

Brief description

A reduction in the dependence of society on fossil fuels is an increasingly urgent issue, and it seems certain that within a relatively short space of time, a portfolio of alternative renewable resources will play an important role in providing our energy needs. Bioenergy crops are considered an important part of this equation and a number of factors, including concerns about global climate change and energy security, have triggered political incentives to dramatically expand their use as sources of transportation fuel and industrial chemicals.

In the United States a number of ambitious targets have already been proposed, such as replacing 30% of the current petroleum with biomass-derived biofuels by 2030. To achieve such goals, or even to approach more modest targets, will require entirely new sustainable agroenergy systems, and these will inevitably present enormous technical and operational challenges, many of which are not yet appreciated.

Plant scientists thus have an immense task to make a significant contribution to this new bioenergy economy, whilst maintaining a reliable supply of food, feed and other plant derived materials to a growing population. Moreover, this must be formulated in a way that is sustainable and that has minimal environmental effects

Cornell University is poised to provide leadership in this complex multidisciplinary effort.

• Cornell has world renowned breadth and excellence in plant sciences and related disciplines. The university’s diversity in applied and basic plant science research, linked to an extensive extension and outreach infrastructure, represents a powerful means to link cutting edge research with practical solutions in the field.
• As New York’s land-grant university, Cornell has a long-standing tradition of bringing applied and basic science to bear on problems of local, national and international development.
• Cornell is also one of few institutions in the world that is able to assemble so many physical and life scientists, engineers, and social scientists with the talent and motivation to create a sustainable, vital, bioenergy future.