Greater use of renewable energy is being aggressively promoted to combat climate change by the Chinese government and by other governments. Agricultural straw is the kind of renewable energy source that would become a pollution source if it is not well utilized. We select the Shiliquan straw-based electricity generation project in Shandong Province, China as a case and assess environmental externalities of straw utilization in power plants by using life-cycle analysis.

We present evidence for the coexistence of two antagonistic sugarcane ethanol production technologies in Brazil, with the Southeast region of the country having relatively mechanized production processes, and the Northeast area using labor-intensive ones.We highlight the main differences between the handproduction and fully automated mechanicalmanufacturing in the Brazilian ethanol industry and examine the historical, political, and economic factors that induced this regional technology gap that is currently observed.

Since 2000, many cities in China have moved their large-scale manufacturing plants from urban to suburban or other less-developed regions. This inter- or intra-regional plant relocation not only leads to changes in land use patterns but also affects institutional, socioeconomic, and environmental issues both at the local and regional levels. We call this regional restructuring process land recycling, which creates critical energy, environmental,  financial, social, and political implications.

In this study, we first define the energy consumption of domestic investment as the investment-driven energy consumption (IDEC). Then, we build an energy input–output model to identify quantitatively the amounts of China’s IDEC from 1992 to 2007. We also use the model to analyze the sector distributions of the IDEC for the same time period.

In this study, we first define the energy consumption of domestic investment as the investment-driven energy consumption (IDEC). Then, we build an energy input–output model to identify quantitatively the amounts of China’s IDEC from 1992 to 2007. We also use the model to analyze the sector distributions of the IDEC for the same time period.

In this study, we first define the energy consumption of domestic investment as the investment-driven
energy consumption (IDEC). Then, we build an energy input–output model to identify quantitatively
the amounts of China’s IDEC from 1992 to 2007. We also use the model to analyze the sector distributions
of the IDEC for the same time period. The key findings derived from this study improve the understanding
of the effects of China’s domestic investment on its energy consumption expansion and reflect the fact

Planners may read plans often, but the profession continues to view the interpretation of plan content as something that is either too obvious or too unimportant to require explicit discussion. Plans are seldom adequately interpreted. This is regrettable because plans contain a rich variety of content and meaning.