Report estimates Supplies for Expanding the Forest Products Industry

The report "Biomass and Biofuels in Maine: Estimating Supplies for Expanding the Forest Products Industry" examines the supply of forest removals, and their potential contribution as a renewable energy source for the transportation fuels sector in Maine and New England.

Using the most recent  state-specific data available, and a methodology similar to the Billion Tons Report, the researchers found that ethanol production from Maine's forest residues could potentially provide 32% of Maine's transportation fuels with a fermented wood to ethanol process.

The complete report, produced by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative, Research Experience for Undergraduates

School of Economics, Department of Resource Economics and Policy, is available under recent publications and reports, http://www.umaine.edu/mcsc/

Study: Prenatal arsenic exposure causes gene expression changes

A study of umbilical cord blood from the children of women exposed to arsenic-contaminated water revealed changes in gene expression. The children had about 450 genes that were either significantly more active or less active than those who were unexposed. The researchers involved with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology study said it is the "first documentation of widespread genetic changes caused by prenatal exposure to an environmental contaminant."  Click for report.

Scientists, average individual see different risks in nanotech

The average citizen is concerned about nanotechnology's potential impact on job losses, potential to fuel an arms race and threat to personal privacy, but scientists tend to be more concerned with the unknown impacts of the emerging technology such as environmental pollution and health risks, according to the results of two new surveys, conducted among 363 nanotechnology scientists and engineers and among 1,015 US adults. Read more about an intriguing contrast in attitudes about this fast-moving yet untested technology.  Click for report. 

Can Incentives Really Create Manufacturing Jobs?

States frequently employ incentives like tax exemptions and loan guarantees to lure manufacturing plants from other states. New evidence suggests that these programs do not effectively leverage the public funding to create new jobs.

A recent article by Yoonsoo Lee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland suggests that public incentives to attract and retain industrial plants have only a marginal impact on the decisions made by manufacturing firms to relocate or shut down particular plants. Additionally, plant relocation itself has a small role to play in overall shifts in national manufacturing employment. Lee tracks the creation, closing and relocation of U.S. manufacturing firms between 1972 and 1992 and finds that most new manufacturing jobs result from non-relocated (de novo) new plant openings and the expansion of jobs at existing plants. Plant relocation plays a fairly minor role. Also, overall patterns in the geographic redistribution of U.S. manufacturing jobs seem to favor states with an already growing manufacturing base.

The paper identifies nine types of incentives used by states to lure manufacturers, including corporate and personal income tax exemptions, R&D tax exemptions, state bond financing, and loans and loan guarantees.

Download the article.

Young people want to start their own businesses

In November, the Kauffman Foundation released a Harris Poll survey that shows America's young people want to be their own boss. The Foundation commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct an online survey of 2,438 youth ages 8 to 21 about entrepreneurship. It shows that four in 10 young people would like to start their own business in the future, while another 37 percent believe starting their own business is a possibility. Read more.