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ID:
137730
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article statistically isolates the impacts of city-level permitting and other local regulatory processes on residential PV prices in the United States. We combine data from two “scoring” mechanisms that independently capture local regulatory process efficiency with the largest dataset of installed PV prices in the United States. We find that variations in local permitting procedures can lead to differences in average residential PV prices of approximately $0.18/W between the jurisdictions with the least-favorable and most-favorable permitting procedures. Between jurisdictions with scores across the middle 90% of the range (i.e., 5th percentile to 95th percentile), the difference is $0.14/W, equivalent to a $700 (2.2%) difference in system costs for a typical 5-kW residential PV installation. When considering variations not only in permitting practices, but also in other local regulatory procedures, price differences grow to $0.64–$0.93/W between the least-favorable and most-favorable jurisdictions. Between jurisdictions with scores across the middle 90% of the range, the difference is equivalent to a price impact of at least $2500 (8%) for a typical 5-kW residential PV installation. These results highlight the magnitude of cost reduction that might be expected from streamlining local regulatory regimes.
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| 2 |
ID:
168315
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper uses a confidential refinery-level dataset to estimate how unexpected changes in the costs of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) affected US oil refinery prices and production decisions for regulated and non-regulated products between 2012 and 2014. The RFS mandates blending of biofuels with conventional gasoline and diesel. Each gallon of biofuel blended with conventional fuel generates a renewable fuel credit (RIN). Refineries comply with the RFS by purchasing RINs from blenders and retiring them with the EPA. I find that RIN costs were fully passed through to wholesale gasoline and diesel prices on average, consistent with previous literature and a necessary condition to ensure the effectiveness of the RFS. Furthermore, I estimate full pass-through in all regions of the US, with the exception of the Eastern Seaboard. I also find that RIN cost increases are associated with higher jet fuel production, a non-regulated product, and with decreased jet fuel prices. Finally, I corroborate previous findings by showing that refinery specific input cost shocks are not fully passed-through to wholesale output prices. These results, combined with other estimates in the literature, suggest that on average the RFS is functioning efficiently and that the wholesale petroleum market is highly competitive.
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