Water Intensity of Transportation Fuels: Water Projections for Fuel Adoption Rates of Light Duty Vehicles

Author(s):  
Carey W. King ◽  
Michael E. Webber ◽  
Ian J. Duncan

Worldwide demand for petroleum grows steadily every year due to increasing demand in the United States as well as countries with fast-growing economies such as China and India, where the populations are striving to attain higher standards of living and lifestyle. Concern over this increased demand for petroleum in light of worries about reliable supply and global climate change has resulted in the US government passing new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and a Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). The existing mandate in the US to blend ethanol into gasoline (approximately 15 billion gallons annually by 2015) had effectively committed 860 billion gallons of irrigation water in 2005 (approximately 2.4% of U.S. 2005 freshwater consumption) for producing fuel for the light duty vehicle (LDV) transportation sector. It is estimated that by 2030, nearly 2,700 billion gallons of water per year will be consumed and 4,700–6,400 billion gallons withdrawn to produce fuels used in LDVs. Irrigation for biofuels dominates the projected water usage for fuels production, but other alternatives to petroleum gasoline (coal to liquids, oil shale, and electricity via plug-in hybrid vehicles) will also contribute appreciably to future water consumption and withdrawal, especially on a regional level.

Author(s):  
Ana Elizabeth Rosas

In the 1940s, curbing undocumented Mexican immigrant entry into the United States became a US government priority because of an alleged immigration surge, which was blamed for the unemployment of an estimated 252,000 US domestic agricultural laborers. Publicly committed to asserting its control of undocumented Mexican immigrant entry, the US government used Operation Wetback, a binational INS border-enforcement operation, to strike a delicate balance between satisfying US growers’ unending demands for surplus Mexican immigrant labor and responding to the jobs lost by US domestic agricultural laborers. Yet Operation Wetback would also unintentionally and unexpectedly fuel a distinctly transnational pathway to legalization, marriage, and extended family formation for some Mexican immigrants.On July 12, 1951, US president Harry S. Truman’s signing of Public Law 78 initiated such a pathway for an estimated 125,000 undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers throughout the United States. This law was an extension the Bracero Program, a labor agreement between the Mexican and US governments that authorized the temporary contracting of braceros (male Mexican contract laborers) for labor in agricultural production and railroad maintenance. It was formative to undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers’ transnational pursuit of decisively personal goals in both Mexico and the United States.Section 501 of this law, which allowed employers to sponsor certain undocumented laborers, became a transnational pathway toward formalizing extended family relationships between braceros and Mexican American women. This article seeks to begin a discussion on how Operation Wetback unwittingly inspired a distinctly transnational approach to personal extended family relationships in Mexico and the United States among individuals of Mexican descent and varying legal statuses, a social matrix that remains relatively unexplored.


Author(s):  
Danylo Kravets

The aim of the Ukrainian Bureau in Washington was propaganda of Ukrainian question among US government and American publicity in general. Functioning of the Bureau is not represented non in Ukrainian neither in foreign historiographies, so that’s why the main goal of presented paper is to investigate its activity. The research is based on personal papers of Ukrainian diaspora representatives (O. Granovskyi, E. Skotzko, E. Onatskyi) and articles from American and Ukrainian newspapers. The second mass immigration of Ukrainians to the US (1914‒1930s) has often been called the «military» immigration and what it lacked in numbers, it made up in quality. Most immigrants were educated, some with college degrees. The founder of the Ukrainian Bureau Eugene Skotzko was born near Western Ukrainian town of Zoloczhiv and immigrated to the United States in late 1920s after graduating from Lviv Polytechnic University. In New York he began to collaborate with OUN member O. Senyk-Hrabivskyi who gave E. Skotzko task to create informational bureau for propaganda of Ukrainian case. On March 23 1939 the Bureau was founded in Washington D. C. E. Skotzko was an editor of its Informational Bulletins. The Bureau biggest problem was lack of financial support. It was the main reason why it stopped functioning in May 1940. During 14 months of functioning Ukrainian Bureau in Washington posted dozens of informational bulletins and send it to hundreds of addressees; E. Skotzko, as a director, personally wrote to American governmental institutions and foreign diplomats informing about Ukrainian problem in Europe. Ukrainian Bureau activity is an inspiring example for those who care for informational policy of modern Ukraine.Keywords: Ukrainian small encyclopedia, Yevhen Onatsky, journalism, worldview, Ukrainian state. Keywords: Ukrainian Bureau in Washington, Eugene Skotzko, public opinion, history of journalism, diaspora.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israa Daas ◽  

Abstract The Palestine-Israel conflict is probably one of the most pressing problems in the Middle East. Moreover, the United States has been involved in this conflict since the 1970s. Therefore, the present research aims to learn more about the American perception of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was conducted using a survey that addressed Americans from different backgrounds, focusing on four variables: the American government’s position, solutions, the Israeli settlements, and Jerusalem. The research suggests a correlation between political party and the American perception of the conflict. It appears that Republicans seem to be against the withdrawal of the Israeli settlements, and they believe that the US government is not biased toward Israel. Nevertheless, Democrats tend to believe that the US government is biased in favor of Israel, and they support withdrawing the Israeli settlements. Moreover, there might be another correlation between the American perception and the source of information they use to learn about the conflict. Most of the surveyed Americans, whatever their resource of information that they use to learn about the conflict is, tend to believe that the US is biased in favor of Israel. It is crucial to know about the American perception when approaching to a solution to the conflict as the US is a mediator in this conflict, and a powerful country in the world. Especially because it has a permanent membership in the UN council. KEYWORDS: American Perception, Palestine-Israel Conflict, Jerusalem, Israeli settlements


Author(s):  
Saeed Vasebi ◽  
Yeganeh M. Hayeri ◽  
Constantine Samaras ◽  
Chris Hendrickson

Gasoline is the main source of energy used for surface transportation in the United States. Reducing fuel consumption in light-duty vehicles can significantly reduce the transportation sector’s impact on the environment. Implementation of emerging automated technologies in vehicles could result in fuel savings. This study examines the effect of automated vehicle systems on fuel consumption using stochastic modeling. Automated vehicle systems examined in this study include warning systems such as blind spot warning, control systems such as lane keeping assistance, and information systems such as dynamic route guidance. We have estimated fuel savings associated with reduction of accident and non-accident-related congestion, aerodynamic force reduction, operation load, and traffic rebound. Results of this study show that automated technologies could reduce light-duty vehicle fuel consumption in the U.S. by 6% to 23%. This reduction could save $60 to $266 annually for the owners of vehicles equipped with automated technologies. Also, adoption of automated vehicles could benefit all road users (i.e., conventional vehicle drivers) up to $35 per vehicle annually (up to $6.2 billion per year).


Author(s):  
Earl H. Fry

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US. 1 1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alcir Santos Neto

This study probes the limits and possibilities of US military efforts to facilitate the transition from warfighting to nation-building. Most comparative studies conceive the complexity of this transition along a spectrum from conflict to humanitarian assistance to post-conflict stabilization. While the last two stages have often been interpreted as a coordinated act of civil-military ‘nation-building’; the spectrum, in fact, represents an ideal type simplification. At one level, outcomes depend on the players involved, including: sovereign nations, national militaries, international and regional institutions, UN peacekeepers, private security contractors, and non-governmental humanitarian providers, among others. On the other hand, because the number, types, and causes of case outcomes are highly diverse and contingent upon many possible factors (among them for example: political, economic, military, organizational, humanitarian, cultural, and religious), institutions like the US military face serious difficulties both planning and coordinating post-conflict scenarios. Assuming this complex backdrop, the present study offers a qualitative analysis of two recent US government reports by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) on US military engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases, the US government sought to ‘nation-build’ by facilitating post-war stabilization and humanitarian assistance, detailing its genuine efforts to record both processes. While results indicate some limited successes in both cases, they also indicate a familiar pattern of uneven performance failures consistent with other cases internationally. The analysis concludes with recommendations for further research that may better control the contingencies of post-conflict management.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (20) ◽  
pp. 109-135
Author(s):  
Veronica A. Wilson

For personal or political reasons undocumented and controversial to this day, Greenwich Village lesbian photographer Angela Calomiris joined forces with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the Second World War to infiltrate the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). As Calomiris rose through CPUSA ranks in New York City, espionage efforts resulted in the Attorney General's office declaring the avant-garde Film and Photo League to be a subversive communist organisation in 1947, and the conviction of communist leaders during the Smith Act trial two years later. Interestingly, despite J. Edgar Hoover's indeterminate sexuality and well-documented harassment of gays and lesbians in public life, what mattered to him was not whether Calomiris adhered to heteronormativity, but that her ultimate sense of duty lay with the US government. This article demonstrates how this distinction helped Calomiris find personal satisfaction in defiance of patriarchal conservative expectations and heteronormative cold war gender roles. This article, which utilises FBI files, press coverage, some of Calomiris's papers and her memoir, concludes with a brief discussion of Calomiris's later life in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she continued to craft her identity as a left-liberal feminist, with no mention of the service to the FBI or her role in fomenting the second Red Scare.


2020 ◽  
pp. 211-232
Author(s):  
Robert Sutter

This chapter reviews Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and People’s Republic of China (PRC) interactions with the United States since the 1940s, and it reveals a general pattern of the United States at the very top of China’s foreign priorities. Among those few instances where China seemed to give less attention to the United States was the post-2010 period, which saw an ever more powerful China advancing at US expense. However, China’s rapid advance in economic, military, and diplomatic power has progressively alarmed the US government, which now sees China as its main international danger. Looking forward into the future, deteriorating US-China relations have enormous consequences for both countries, the Asia-Pacific region, and the world.


2019 ◽  
pp. 216847901987406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Tomaselli Muensterman ◽  
Yijia Luo ◽  
Jonathon M. Parker

Background: Because of the increasing demand for drugs addressing life-threatening and rare diseases, regulatory agencies have developed a variety of accelerated regulatory pathways. These programs are aimed at prioritizing the most promising drug candidates for diseases lacking satisfactory treatments. The most prominent accelerated programs introduced have been Breakthrough-Therapy Designation (BTD) in the United States, Priority Medicine (PRIME) in the European Union and Sakigake in Japan. This article reviews these designations and looks at differences in how they are granted across the 3 jurisdictions focusing on neuroscience and oncology. Methods: Our objective was to analyze BTD, PRIME, and Sakigake approvals between 2012 and 2019 with a focus on numerical disparities of designations granted between the 2 therapeutic areas. A search of public sources pertaining to topics of BTD, PRIME, and Sakigake was undertaken. Results: This analysis revealed that 48% of BTD were granted in oncology, while neuroscience received 8% of these designations, for PRIME designations were 27% received by oncology and 15% by neuroscience and in Japan, 50% of Sakigake were granted to oncology and 22% to neuroscience products. Conclusion: Given the global nature of drug development and relative similarity of these regulatory mechanisms, there is an apparent disparity between the US granting special status at 6:1 (oncology: neuroscience) and both the EU and Japan granting at 2:1. This disproportionate ratio is likely impacted by multifactorial issues; however, this difference is worth further investigation.


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