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USEEIO State Models v1.0 Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Models for U.S. States
Citation:
Ingwersen, Wesley W., C. Birney, B. Young, AND J. Vendries. USEEIO State Models v1.0 Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Models for U.S. States. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-23/228, 2024.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this report is to provide an in-depth description of the new USEEIO State Models to potential users, including a background on the issues, an overview of the models, description of their availability, proof of validation, example results with discussion, a comparison to the national models, and a note on future applications.
Description:
Many U.S. states have established strategies and goals to steer themselves toward both cleaner and more prosperous economies. Progress towards achieving such goals cannot be easily measured due to the complexities of economies and hidden or embodied impacts. Quantitative models that capture the relationship between the economy and environment can provide useful information to evaluate opportunities. But for states, these models need to account for the interrelationships between different economic sectors, between the regions they trade with beyond their borders, and between different environmental, human health and employment impacts. If states are to be confident in their assessments of technologies or industries, models must capture the relationship between consumption of goods or services (G/S), the state’s own industries, dependencies upon imports, and the associated potential environmental, human health, and economic impacts occurring within and outside their borders, EPA has developed a first set of state models that are intrinsically built on these relationships and can quantify these potential impacts for existing G&S produced or consumed in a state.The models are an extension of the national level U.S. Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO) models. They use established techniques to combine regularly reported economic statistics with environmental data and impact models to characterize the production of goods and services in a state along with the rest of the U.S. The models can capture the supply chains as well as the final use of those G/S, whether it is used as an input to another industry, used by households, investors or government, both within or out of state, or an international export. Resource use, emissions, hazardous waste generation, and jobs are modeled for each G/S category by state-of-interest and the rest of the U.S. Total production of all G/S and final consumption is estimated by state and can be used to estimate total associated impacts and compare environmental performance among the G/S classes, within and across states. Evaluating G/S consumed in a state can reveal whether inputs come from within or out of state and in which region the associated impacts may occur. A full annual time-series from 2012-2020 of models for each of the 50 U.S. states are provided with a resolution of 73 G/S categories, two-regions (State-of-interest and rest of US) and can report 16 environmental, human health, resource use, waste and economic indicators. The models cover for each G/S the “cradle-to-gate” life cycle stages, including from resource mining through manufacturing or service provision. The model have known applications in sustainable material management, sustainable procurement, economic sector analysis, hotspot analysis, life cycle assessment, consumption-based emissions inventories, among others. The models have been validated and are built using a reviewed and tested modeling framework that incorporates peer-reviewed methodologies. The models are distributed via a number of outlets and formats, but still require some advanced understandings to use or can be incorporated into more targeted and easier-to-use interfaces. Example results from the models to show and compare emissions intensities of G/S, ranking sectors by contribution to potential impacts, and exposing the source of potential impacts by source across the supply chains, are provided. The strengths of these models include that they are comprehensive of all economic sectors and their relationships, that they are based on public data combined through established algorithms, that they are freely available and the source code to build the models is usable by all to inspect and improve upon with minimal restrictions. Model limitations are further addressed in the report.