# Consumer Preferences for Wood-Pellet-Based Green Pricing Programs in the Eastern United States
## 4 Results and Discussion
### Paired Estimates for BWS  
In this section we analyze both the state-wise (AL, NJ, NY, PA, VA) and the pooled state estimates, which are a combination of total number of respondents from the five Eastern states. We used a paired estimation method that applies the best/worst pairs instead of the attribute level observations [55]. For the attribute estimation in the first step of the analysis, the 'GP attribute', was the omitted variable and used as a baseline/reference for the other attributes to avoid the dummy variable trap [55]. All attributes for the pooled estimates were positive and significant, meaning that the respondents valued all the attributes presented in the hypothetical GPP task (Table 3). The reduction of carbon emissions (RC) was the most valued attribute, followed by location of energy generation (LG), variability of payments (VP), flexibility of contract (FC), and length of contract (LC), respectively. [PERSON] et al. [14] found that co-firing is a viable alternative to other CO\({}_{2}\) reduction technologies for conventional fossil fuel power plants; our findings show that, for consumer support, any GPPs designed to back co-firing plants must have a comprehensive carbon reduction approach. In the case of co-firing coal with wood pellets, the wood pellet to coal ratio should result in energy production that is carbon neutral, as seen in studies by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [12], [PERSON] et al. [13], and [PERSON] et al. [11]. A closer analysis of the state-wiseattributes reveals that the LC, VP, and FC attributes were not significant for respondents from NJ, whereas LC was not significant in AL. It is plausible that these outcomes can be attributed to the lower GPP enrollment rates within respondents in these states as seen in Section 4.2. Although, these three attributes are key to the energy providers, they have an insignificant impact on AL and NJ residents' value of GPP in their states. In the second step of the BWS analysis, we evaluated the results of the attribute level scaling. For the length of contract (LC) attribute, the pooled state estimates for the level scale reveal that the contract length of 6 months (6 M) had a negative coefficient relative to the baseline level scale of 24 months (24 M). The 12-month (12 M) contract had a positive coefficient, showing that a moderate duration contract was more important than contracts that were either too short or too long. While looking at the state wise contract length attribute levels, similar trends were observed for all the individual Eastern states. [PERSON] et al. (2016) found that dynamic contracts for community solar programs were most amenable to energy consumers in the US, where contract length options were consumer-led and variable depending on their specific needs to mitigate financial risk. For the variability of payments (VP) attribute's level scale values, the results for the pooled state estimates show that the fixed premium level scale (FP) had a negative and significant coefficient as opposed to the fluctuating premium \(\pm\) 5% (F5), translating to respondents valuing fluctuating premiums as opposed to fixed premiums. In the state-wise analysis, similar trends were observed for all the individual Eastern states except for NY respondents, where the F5 level scale was not significant. Perhaps, the higher enrollment rates in this state is attributed to consumers having a greater sense of the value of fixed premiums as opposed to fluctuating premiums. Fluctuating premiums account for changes in market trends such as the cost of wood pellets and operations ([PERSON], 2017). From a co-firing energy plant perspective, this outcome should be an incentive to incorporate wood pellet-based co-firing and tap into green energy subsidies from consumer-based programs. Likewise, [PERSON] et al. (2017) found that contract terms such as price guarantee (corresponding to our variability attribute) and cancellation period (corresponding to our contract length attribute) were more important in explaining consumer choices as opposed