Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development

 

 

Archive for Land Use

Climate Change and Decarbonization: Firm-level Insights from the 2023 Annual Business Survey and Implications for Rural Communities

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is perhaps the greatest sociotechnical challenge humanity has faced. Federal expenditures in 2023 supporting the transition exceed $369bn, and yet remarkably little information exists about why or how firms are transitioning to new energy forms. The much lower energy density of renewables will create new land use […]
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USDA to fund analysis of how U.S. businesses approach decarbonization

October 3, 2024

NERCRD researchers and their collaborators will receive $650,000 over three years to study why, how and where U.S. businesses are developing and adopting renewable energy sources — a process known as decarbonization — and how these decisions could affect rural communities.

Did the U.S. Fracking Boom Shale-Shock Regional Patenting?

Download a 1-page summary of this research here.

The shale boom of the early 21st century turned the U.S. into an energy powerhouse and significantly disrupted local economies with shale resources. This study examines the impacts of the U.S. shale boom on regional patenting at a commuting zone level. The shale boom may negatively affect patents if it crowds out labor and capital investments in other non-energy industries. Our findings show that a one standard deviation increase in non-vertical well density decreases patent intensity by 3.74% of the mean. Areas with higher drilling densities have lower levels of patented innovation compared to their counterfactuals. This paper contributes to the existing literature related to the “natural resource curse.” We provide new evidence based on regional patenting, which is an important indicator for regional innovation and long-term economic growth.

Authors: Luyi Han, John V. Winters

Publication: Growth and Change   Date Published: September 17, 2024

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the belonging of an unhoused person or family in a vacant lot

Penn State Extension’s Land Use Webinar Series resumes with a focus on improving rural communities’ response to homelessness

July 10, 2024

July 17, 2024 from 12:00-1:15 p.m. ET – “Improving Rural Communities Response to Homelessness” is the first webinar in the Penn State Extension Summer/Fall 2024 Land Use Webinar series that runs monthly from July through November 2024.

Ecosystem Services on Working Lands in the Northeast U.S.

NERCRD provided advisory support to this effort, which was conducted by Alicia F. Coleman and Mario Reinaldo Machado and commissioned by the Association of Northeast Extension Directors and the Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors. Coleman and Machado assessed over 1,300 ecosystem service provisioning programs and policies across the U.S. Northeast. The […]

Land Link Programs in the Northeast U.S.

Test Excerpt: RDP53—This publication series includes two documents, including a program assessment and a list of Land Link programs in the U.S., as of February 2014. Written by Leslie Pillen.

Authors: Leslie Pillen and Clare Hinrichs, Penn State

Publication: Rural Development Paper No. 53   Date Published: February 1, 2014

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