New energy and climate policies are being developed, proposed and implemented at an unprecedented pace in the United States and elsewhere. Professor Marilyn A. Brown and her doctoral student, Nilgun Atamturk, with the support of CPBIS, are conducting a study of potential impacts of energy and climate policies on the U. S. pulp and paper industry. That study is now nearing completion, and the authors have released a preview of the results.
They examined five policy initiatives:

1. a federal renewable electricity standard,
2. a U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) cap and trade system,
3. stronger federal renewable fuels standards,
4. state incentives for biomass pilot projects, and
5. taxation of forest property based on current use.

They concluded that all would increase the supply of forest-based raw materials and all but one would simultaneously put upward pressure on the price of these raw materials. This would result in higher prices for domestically produced paper products, exacerbating the demand-reducing trends associated with increasing use of electronic communication and increasing competition from foreign suppliers. The exception is taxation of forest property based on current use, which would tend to decrease the price of forest-based inputs.
A summary prepared by the authors includes a tabular representation of the expected magnitudes and directions of the effects of various policies. It can be accessed via the following link:
http://www.cpbis.gatech.edu/news/080214_energy_policy.pdf