The iron and steel industry generates around 10 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. The bulk of the emissions originates from the iron ore reduction. In this reduction, coal is used as a reagent. Steelmakers could switch to hydrogen-based direct reduction using hydrogen instead of coal as a reagent to reduce iron ore to pig iron. This would eliminate the CO2 emissions from the equivalent process in a traditional blast furnace. However, the process requires massive amounts of electricity. This paper looks at the economics of such a switch to “green steel.” We assess a marginal increase in the production of a hypothetical green steelmaker. We also undertake an investment appraisal of a green plant, based on an ongoing installation in Northern Sweden, but also briefly consider a possible/planned investment in the US. This appraisal is complemented by computing the survival function for the net present value in a systematic sensitivity analysis. It seems highly unlikely that a green steel plant can be socially profitable. If the green plant displaces conventional steel produced within the European Union’s cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases, total emissions remain more or less unaffected; permits and emissions are simply reshuffled. Hence, if end-users of green steel pay a premium, they might pay for an illusion.

Three economic opportunities are presented for rural areas in this invitedpaper session: self-employment, investments in broadband infrastructure, andagritourism. Self-employment has shown growth in rural regions at theexpense of wage and salary employment in the long-term. Productionagriculture interests by themselves are unlikely to provide sufficientfunding to expand infrastructure for broadband in rural areas. Agritourismapproaches appear to be very wide ranging with many educational demandsneeding to be met to maximize its diversification possibilities. Researchand extension faculty should be careful to focus on explaining the tradeoffsof these opportunities so that rural stakeholders do not fall victim to thelatest academic economic development fad.

Agriculture in the Texas High Plains depends entirely on the Ogallala Aquifer. Texas enacted water conservation legislation to address declining reserves in the aquifer. We developed an integrated regional water policy model that links a hydrology model with an economic optimization model to estimate policy impacts with respect to economic cost and water conservation. Testing the effectiveness of two policies, a groundwater extraction tax and extraction quotas, we observe that neither significantly inhibits groundwater use. Although both policies conserve similar amounts of groundwater, the regional cost of the tax policy to agriculture is more than the quota policy.

Since the Internet's inception its impact has been felt across the UnitedStates, but the distribution and adoption of the Internet has notnecessarily been uniform geographically. As more consumers and businessesrely on the Internet to access information, the data transmissionrequirements have also increased. Consequently, access to broadband hasbecome increasingly more important since dial-up cannot realistically handlethe increased requirements. The use of broadband in agriculture can providebetter access to price, weather, and management information while alsoopening new markets. However, many rural communities lag behind urban areasin broadband access and adoption rates. This study evaluates, through theuse of a producer survey, the level of broadband Internet use, motivationsfor its use, degree of access to broadband, and willingness-to-pay (WTP) tofund broadband infrastructure investments. Results from the producer surveysuggested farmers utilize the Internet primarily for accessing weatherreports, e-mail, market reports, and agricultural news. Notably, thesurvey's WTP questions allowed for the use of an interval regression tocalculate producer WTP for varying demographics. The results suggested thatproducers who were younger, farmed larger farms, and those who currently usethe Internet but do not have broadband access were WTP more in propertytaxes to support broadband infrastructure investments than those of adiffering demographic. Because WTP levels varied drastically depending onthe underlying demographics, it becomes difficult to pinpoint a WTP levelfor a one-time payment in property taxes that would be acceptable from apolicy standpoint.