AIR QUALITY ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1997: COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
This research develops a cost-benefit analysis associated with the introduction by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Summer of 1997 of new ozone and particulate matter air quality standards. The findings of this research are presented in relation to (1) program description and goals, (2) costs and benefits associated with the program, (3) distributional implications of the program and the trade-off between efficiency and equity, (4) appropriate methods for cost quantification, and (5) suggestions for program modification.
Dirty air and dirty water prompted the federal government in the United States to consider legislation to prevent environmental pollution in the 1950s and 1960s. It was not simply that the air and water were polluted. Rather, it was because such pollution was being ever increasingly linked to serious human health problems. Environmental policy concerns both health and ecological aspects. Environmental health policy concerns pollution that either directly affects the health of humans or affects human health through the effects of environmental pollution on the food chain. Environmental pollution policy affects those actions that lead or have the potential to lead to ecological degradation.
Pollution is introduced into the air by both natural and artificial contaminant particulates. Typical natural contaminants include salt particles from the oceans, and dust and gases from volcanoes. Typical artificial contaminants are wastes and gases that emanate from industrial, power generation, municipal, household, aircraft, rocket, and automotive combustion processes.
Industrial pollution is a major cause of haze in the air. Because haze accompanies the high humidity of eastern summers, the problem often is dismissed as a fact of life. Haze in the contemporary period, however, is mostly a product of pollution. In some areas, the effec...