Marketing New England Biofuels to Ensure Energy Security

Developing a cellulosic biofuels market provides a potential opportunity to revitalize the forest industrial sector, thereby enhancing employment opportunities and incomes in areas of the rural Northeast that typically has few other economic opportunities. This project focuses on the areas of Marketing, Economics and Policy and Systems Integration as it applies to designing and testing information strategies to promote biofuels use and production in the Northeast. The Energy Independence and Security Act requires the sale of specified quantities of renewable and advanced biofuels. These fuels will cost more to produce but will provide enhanced reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This research will provide crucial knowledge about how consumers understand and evaluate biofuels in a competitive marketplace taking into consideration their environmental impacts. The project will provide important information on how to best market and label advanced biofuels to insure that largest contribution to local economies and diversify regional energy supplies. This will provide valuable information about ways to promote purchases of biofuels, and provide information to policy makers on potential standards for certification and labeling of biofuel products. We will research, design, and test the effectiveness of various consumer information strategies to promote cellulosic ethanol in particular, and evaluate consumer's acceptance and understanding of biofuels generally. The research will also derive estimates of the market penetration of biofuels in the Northeast. These estimates of market penetration, combined with estimates of market share changes for alternatively fueled vehicles, will allow us to make petroleum displacement forecasts and evaluate the possible impact of biofuels on the Northeast's energy security. By focusing efforts on the Northeast region we are uniquely able to bring together economists and market researchers with bioproducts researchers at the University of Maine's Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Program Information: Advanced Research, Biobased Research

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $99947.00
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  Department of Transportation
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Johnson, Shawn

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Maine, Orono

  103 Boardman Hall
  Orono, ME  United States  04469
• Principal Investigators:

  Teisl, Mario

• Start Date: 20080701
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20100630
• Source Data: RiP Project 25217

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air quality management; Alternate fuels; Biomass fuels; Cellulose; Competition; Economic factors; Energy conservation; Environmental impacts; Greenhouse gases; Pollutants; Research projects
• Candidate Terms: Energy security
• Geographic Terms: New England
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Transportation (General); I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01572263
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP
• Created Date: Aug 4 2015 1:02AM