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Economics, Energy
and Environment: Navigating Beyond the Political Fog
 Since 1995 — long before Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” made talking about global warming cool — Forbes’ students have been studying the economics of pollution controls and clean energy alternatives. Then came last summer, when $4-per-gallon gasoline kicked off political and public debates over the need to diversify energy supplies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Forbes, who is director of CUA’s Center for the Study of Energy and Environmental Stewardship and chair of the Department of Business and Economics, notes that the course is really three classes in one. The students must first learn microeconomic theory — how individuals, companies and governments make decisions to allocate limited resources. That is no small undertaking for a group of non-economics majors. They use that knowledge to then examine the economics of the energy industry: How is the price of a barrel of oil determined? Why aren’t solar panels more affordable? Does levying taxes on polluters bring about more positive change than offering tax breaks for pollution reduction? Finally, they look at the environmental issues associated with the production and consumption of energy, e.g., global warming and how to lower greenhouse gas emissions without harming industry. Along the way, the students learn about pollution-combating methods such as “cap and trade,” which allows companies to exceed emissions allowances by purchasing that right to pollute from other companies that are successfully curtailing their emissions. They also learn to separate the fact from the feel-good: For instance, at gas prices of $2 or even $4 per gallon, hybrid vehicles don’t offer any real economic advantage. This fall-semester class has just five students, all sophomores, all University Honors Program participants. They are gathered on one side of a row of tables in a room smaller than the average classroom. They sit facing the blackboard, just a few feet across from where Forbes sits when he’s not pacing the floor or drawing graph after graph on the chalkboard. But in the moments when he’s seated, the class takes on an intimacy not often seen in sophomore-level university courses.  The five students in the class, all University Honors Program participants, get plenty of face time with Professor Forbes. “The Middle East,” one student immediately volunteers. A few classmates chime in their agreement. It’s a logical guess. After all, at this point in the semester, the presidential election is just six weeks away and both candidates have talked repeatedly about diverting oil revenues away from the Middle East. Logical? Yes. A trick question? Definitely. Forbes waits for another suggestion, but the students are firmly behind their answer. “Actually,” he says with a wry smile, “would you believe it’s those wily Canadians?” These students have enrolled in the class during an election season, and thus are being inundated by political talking points and media stories on many of the course’s central issues — oil production, global warming, offshore drilling, alternative energy production. That may be why most of Forbes’ students seem so empowered by the class. It’s as if they’ve been given the tools to crack the political Morse code. “We have learned fascinating facts that have helped us navigate through the 2008 political campaign rhetoric, such as the feasibility of the energy platforms of both parties,” says Lauren Joyce, a biology major from West Chester, Pa., who says she took the class so she could evaluate both presidential candidates. The result, for Joyce, has been both in-sightful and disheartening. “The information presented in this class forces you to wonder whether politicians are just ignorant of these issues, whether they are party to facts that we don’t know, or whether they just hope that people will rally behind an emotion-evoking phrase and not bother to do their research.” You had better believe Forbes’ students have been doing their research. They study economic theory and market data to debate big questions such as how to stabilize oil prices. Biomedical engineering major Jenna Graham thinks she has her answer to that puzzler, no thanks to either of the presidential candidates’ talking points: “This class has debunked the myth that energy independence will solve the problem of fluctuating oil prices. “Unless we close ourselves off from trade completely, any price shock in the world will affect our oil prices at home,” says Graham, who hails from Columbia, Md. “I have learned that a better solution for mitigating the effects of volatile oil prices is to reduce our consumption so that fluc-tuations aren’t so hard on us financially.” Forbes has a rather ambitious goal for his students: to move beyond where the politicians are on a given energy issue. For the students’ final research paper, each must choose an energy/environmental issue to examine. The goal of the paper is to apply the current data and theoretical framework presented in class to the policy choices that society faces. The students aren’t graded on the conclusions they reach, but on how well they have researched the issue and applied what they’ve learned. Forbes definitely looks like a professor: He has thick round glasses, a beard and a perpetual look of one deep in thought. Maybe it’s all the numbers he’s got swirling around in his head, ready to be dispatched to his students at a moment’s notice. “Twelve to 16 percent of women of child-rearing age have increased levels of mercury,” he tells the class as they wade into a discussion on the federal Clean Water Act. The increase in toxicity is thanks to ingesting fish like tuna and salmon with high mercury levels. That figure isn’t hypothetical; it’s a fact that Forbes keeps in the front of his brain for this sort of occasion. And there are plenty more where that came from: The United States consumes 7.5 billion gallons of oil a year. America’s 500 dirtiest power plants in terms of carbon emissions accounted for approximately 22 percent of the nation’s power generation in 2006. Burning a gallon of gasoline — which weighs only 6.3 pounds — creates 19.4 pounds of CO2. Forbes is careful to stop often along the way, remembering that these students are not econ majors. “Is this OK?” he asks the class after presenting a model addressing whether it’s just too expensive to do anything about global warming. “Professor Forbes does a great job of breaking down huge concepts into bite-sized pieces,” says Joyce. “It’s a rare professor who can teach an accelerated course to non-majors and have them comprehend so much!” “Is this making sense?” he asks later in the class, “Are we going too fast?” “No, we’re good,” a student responds. And with that, Forbes begins erasing a graph and tracing a new X and Y axis. There are so many formulas still to learn. Back to top |
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