Description: Over the past decades, considerable debate has emerged surrounding the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to analyze and make recommendations for environmental and safety regulations. Critics argue that CBA forces values on unquantifiable factors, that it does not adequately measure benefits across generations, and that it is not adaptable in situations of uncertainty. Proponents, on the other hand, believe that a well-done CBA provides useful, albeit imperfect, information to policymakers precisely because of the standard metrics that are applied across the analysis. Largely absent from the debate have been practical questions about how the use of CBA could be improved. Relying on the assumption that CBA will remain an important component in the regulatory process, this new work from Resources for the Future brings together experts representing both sides of the debate to analyze the use of CBA in three key case studies: the Clean Air Interstate Rule, the Clean Air Mercury Rule, and the Cooling Water Intake Structure Rule (Phase II). Each of the case studies is accompanied by critiques from both an opponent and a proponent of CBA and includes consideration of complementary analyses that could have been employed. The work's editors - two CBA supporters and one critic - conclude the report by offering concrete recommendations for improving the use of CBA, focusing on five areas: technical quality of the analyses, relevance to the agency decision-making process, transparency of the analyses, treatment of new scientific findings, and balance in both the analyses and associated processes, including the treatment of distributional consequences.

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Description: Since the early 1990s, voluntary programs have played an increasingly prominent role in environmental management in the U.S. and other industrialized countries. Programs have attempted to address problems ranging from climate change and energy efficiency, to more localized air and water pollution problems. But do they work? Despite a growing theoretical literature trying to explain how and why voluntary programs might be effective, there is limited empirical evidence on their success or the situations most conducive to the approaches. Even less is known about their cost-effectiveness.

Getting credible answers to these questions is important. Research to date has been largely limited to individual programs, and protagonists and antagonists to the trend are at ever greater disagreement, sometimes drawing opposite conclusions about the same program. This innovative book seeks to clarify what is known by looking at a range of program types, including different approaches adopted in different nations. The focus is on assessing actual performance via seven case studies, including the U.S. Climate Wise program, the U.S. EPA's 33/50 program on toxic chemicals, the U.K. Climate Change Agreements, and the Keidanren Voluntary Action Plan in Japan.

The central goals of Reality Check are understanding outcomes and the relationship between outcomes and design. Most of the programs it studies have positive results, but they are small compared with business-as-usual trends and the impact of other forces--such as higher energy prices. Importantly, potential gains may be quickly exhausted as the “low-hanging fruit” is picked up by voluntary programs. By including in-depth analyses by experts from the U.S., Europe, and Japan, the book advances scholarship and provides practical information for the future design of voluntary programs to stakeholders and policymakers on all sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Description: Written by an internationally renowned team of economists and policy analysts at Resources for the Future, this collection of twenty-five "memos to the President" offers constructive policy options for the elected administration on critical challenges related to energy, the environment, and natural resources.
Each contributor to New Approaches on Energy and the Environment was asked to address the question: "Based on your research and knowledge, what policy recommendation would you like to make to the next U.S. president?" Writing in advance of the 2004 election, the authors were asked not to confine their suggestions to what the prevailing wisdom says is politically possible. They also took pains to make their ideas accessible to a busy president as well as a wide range of readers interested in a concise and authoritative overview of the nation’s energy and environmental policy choices. The results are provocative, sometimes controversial, but highly readable essays on topics including climate change, oil dependency, electricity regulation, brownfields revitalization, forest service administration, air and water quality, and environmental health issues such as food safety and the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
When our new President takes office in January 2009, he will confront competing perspectives about the priorities and approaches that should apply to energy and environmental policy: Americans want cleaner air and water and healthy and attractive surroundings, but they also want inexpensive fuel, comfortable cars and houses, and continued economic growth. New Approaches on Energy and the Environment provides thought-provoking, commonsense contributions to debates about important energy and environmental issues confronting the U.S. today.

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Description:

The two distinct approaches to environmental policy include direct regulation—sometimes called “command and control” policies—and regulation by economic, or market-based incentives. This book is the first to compare the costs and outcomes of these approaches by examining realworld applications. In a unique format, paired case studies from the United States and Europe contrast direct regulation on one side of the Atlantic with an incentivebased policy on the other. For example, Germany’s direct regulation of SO2 emissions is compared with an incentive approach in the U.S. Direct regulation of water pollution via the U.S. Clean Water Act is contrasted with Holland’s incentive-based fee system. Additional studies contrast solutions for eliminating leaded gasoline and reducing nitrogen oxide emissions, CFCs, and chlorinated solvents.

The cases presented in Choosing Environmental Policy were selected to allow the sharpest, most direct comparisons of direct regulation and incentive-based strategies. In practice, environmental policy is often a mix of both types of instruments. This innovative investigation will interest scholars, students, and policymakers who want more precise information as to what kind of "blend" will yield the most effective policy. Are incentive instruments more efficient than regulatory ones? Do regulatory policies necessarily have higher administrative costs? Are incentive policies more difficult to monitor? Are firms more likely to oppose market-based instruments or traditional regulation? These are some of the important questions the authors address, often with surprising results.

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Description: For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting programmatic "economic analyses," also known as Regulatory Impact Analyses (RIAs), to assess the economic effects of its regulatory efforts. This important volume explains the purpose of these analyses, along with their design, execution, conclusions, and their ultimate impact on environmental rules.

Richard Morgenstern, formerly director of EPA’s Office of Policy Analysis, has assembled twelve original case studies of RIAs performed over the past decade on matters such as lead in gasoline, ozone depletion, asbestos, clean drinking water, and sewage management. The contributors, most of whom actually worked on these RIAs, provide detailed examination of why and how they were performed. The case studies critique the nature, amount, and quality of data used by the EPA in their benefit-cost and cost-effectiveness analyses as well as the use (or abuse) of the results in final decisionmaking. The authors illustrate how the analyses take into account difficult issues such as discounting, risk, nonmonetized benefits and costs, and equity.

Morgenstern provides the necessary historical context and the legal framework for requiring and conducting EAs. He describes new procedures outlined by the Clinton administration and synthesizes the case studies into thoughtful cross-cutting conclusions, drawing important lessons that will improve future analyses.

RFF Press is now an imprint of Earthscan. Click here to buy this book.