Thursday, February 20, 2020

The Mesaba Energy Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Mesaba Energy Project - Essay Example ironmental compliance technology, namely IGCC that would remove not only air and water pollutants but would capture the CO2 from entering the atmosphere (Mesaba Energy Project – Fact Sheet). There has been a lot of commotion on the viability of the Mesaba energy project. Instead of bringing any benefits of technology, is the project going to make the life of people of Minnesota more vulnerable? There are arguments and counter-arguments against the Mesaba energy project. It is very important to reach a conclusion after checking the pros and cons of the project. It is being said that the Mesaba energy project, based on IGCC technology, would be cleaner than traditional energy-generating coal plants in performance, efficiency and emissions. Again, when we talk of innovative technology, some in-depth knowledge of the working of the gasification process is must because that is going to form basis for advocating the Mesaba energy project, located in north Minnesota. Gasification is a chemical process by which carbonic materials like coal, petroleum coke, biomass, etc. are transformed to a synthesis gas (syngas) through partial oxidation with air, oxygen, and steam by requirement (http://www.clean-energy.us/facts/gasification.htm). The ConocoPhillips E-Gas technology is the basis of gasification process – to convert coal into synthesis gas and clean the gas of impurities before burning. This technology (IGCC) is less pollutant to produce electricity from coal. It is not new, but the application is new – combining gasification technology with well-known combined-cycle technology. This gas is burned to turn generators and produce electricity. Typical coal-burning power plants release mercury, sulfur, nitrogen oxides, and lots of carbon dioxide (http://www.excelsiorenergy.com/igcc/index.html). Mesaba energy project should be favored, as it is practical than other energy sources like nuclear energy, natural gas, biomass, solar and wind energy. Nuclear energy produces

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Methods and Techniques Used by Firms to Manage Earnings and the Coursework

Methods and Techniques Used by Firms to Manage Earnings and the Motives behind Earnings Management - Coursework Example The value of this activity in large firms seems to be quite high at the level that firms of this size need to publish their reports regularly so that the public is informed about their performance. For this reason, the alteration of figures included in a firm’s financial reports has become a common practice, is related to the efforts for keeping the organizational performance standardized. Still, in the literature, a different view seems to be the most popular: the motives behind earning management cannot be easily accepted. Indeed, quite often earnings management is used for giving a different impression to the public in regard the performance of a particular organization. The motives related to earnings management are also presented in this paper, offering important explanations on the following question: could earnings management become popular in all countries worldwide or not? It is proved that earnings management is not related to geographical criteria; rather, it seems that the position of a firm’s in its industry and the targets set by the managers are used as criteria for deciding the introduction of earnings management in a particular organization. Earning management can be characterized as one of the most important organizational processes. A series of factors have been related to the expansion of earnings management across organizations of different characteristics. In practice, the particular process is often used for promoting personal interests rather than the interests of the organization. The above view is verified through the definition of earning management, as included in the study of Ronen & Yaari (2007). According to the above definition, ‘earning management occurs when managers exercise their discretion over the accounting numbers with or without restrictions†¦ such discretion can be either firm value maximizing or opportunistic’.