Download or read book Sulfur Dioxide Compliance of a Regulated Utility written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Electric utilities can reduce sulfur dioxide emissions through a variety of strategies such as adding scrubbers, switching to low- sulfur coal, or shifting output between generating plants with different emissions. The cost of achieving a given emission target can be minimized using a market for emission allowances, as under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, if firms with high abatement costs buy allowances while those with low abatement costs reduce emissions and sell allowances. However, public utility commissions regulate which costs can be passed to customers. Previous theoretical work has analyzed effects of regulations on a utility's choice between permits and a single continuous àbatement technology.' Here, we consider three abatement technologies and the discrete choices among them. Our numerical model uses market and engineering information on permit prices, scrubber cost and sulfur removal efficiency, alternative fuel costs and sulfur content, plus generating plant costs and efficiency. Using illustrative sets of parameters, we find that regulatory rules could more than double the cost of sulfur dioxide compliance

Download or read book The Impact of State level Public Utility Commission Regulation on the Market for Sulfur Dioxide Allowances Compliance Costs and the Distribution of Emissions written by Paul Michael Sotkiewicz and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book How Environmental Laws Work written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study is designed to examine the actual performance of environmental regulations and the compliance behavior of regulated business in a real-world setting. It focuses on business compliance with regulatory standards for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide in the electric power industry from 1995 through 1999. The selected time period permits evaluation of Phase I of Title IV of the Federal Clean Air Act, enacted in 1990 to regulate utility emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. This allows comparison of the two contrasting approaches Title IV imposed on electricity-generating facilities: an emissions cap and allowance trading program for sulfur dioxide, the most ambitious such program operating in the United States, and a more traditional technology-based emission rate standard to control nitrogen oxides emissions. The study also compares these standards to the new source standards for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide in effect during the 1995-99 period, providing findings about business behavior in the face of varied regulatory standards.

Download or read book Sulfur Dioxide Control by Electric Utilities written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sulfur Dioxide Control by Electric Utilities written by Curtis Carlson and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Title IV of the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments offers firms facing high marginal costs for pollution abatement the chance to purchase the right to emit sulfur dioxide from firms with lower costs. In the long run such allowance trading may achieve substantial cost savings over an quot;enlightenedquot; command and control program with a uniform emission-rate standard. But in the short run what has lowered costs is technical change and the fall in low-sulfur coal prices.Title IV of the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments established a market for transferable sulfur dioxide emission allowances among electric utilities. The market offers firms facing high marginal costs for pollution abatement the opportunity to purchase the right to emit sulfur dioxide from firms with lower costs. It is expected to yield more cost savings than a command and control approach to environmental regulation.To evaluate the performance of the market for sulfur dioxide allowances, Carlson, Burtraw, Cropper, and Palmer use econometrically estimated marginal abatement cost functions for power plants affected by Title IV. They investigate whether the much-heralded fall in the cost of abating sulfur dioxide can be attributed to allowance trading.They find that for plants that use low-sulfur coal to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, technical change and the fall in low-sulfur coal prices have lowered marginal abatement cost curves by more than half since 1985. And that is the main source of cost reductions rather than trading allowances per se.In the long run, allowance trading may achieve cost savings of $700 million to $800 million a year more than could be expected from an quot;enlightenedquot; command and control program with a uniform emission-rate standard. But comparing potential cost savings in 1995 and 1996 with actual emissions costs suggests that most trading gains were unrealized in the first two years of the program.This paper-a product of Environment and Infrastructure, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to examine the successes and failures of environmental regulation as a guide to formulating environmental policy. Maureen Cropper may be contacted at [email protected].

Download or read book Voluntary Compliance with Market based Environment Poliy sic written by Juan Pablo Montero and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. acid rain program, Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, is a pioneering experience in environmental regulation by setting a market for electric utility emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and by including a voluntary compliance provision. Under the Substitution provision, non-affected electric utility units can voluntarily become subject to all compliance requirements of affected units and receive SO2 tradeable permits (allowances). This paper studies the welfare implications of this voluntary provision and tests the adverse selection hypothesis of voluntary programs. The results indicate that although this provision has had a rather small effect on the overall performance of the SO2 market, there has been a significant participation, mostly from units with counterfactual emissions (i.e. emissions in the absence of regulation) well below their allowance allocations, which suggests that SO2 emissions have been higher than otherwise. An ex post cost-benefit analysis shows that this adverse selection effect tend to dominate the flexibility effect of permitting shifts in emissions reductions from high-cost affected units to low-cost non-affected units. On the other hand, participation with the Substitution provision confirms that electric utilities are choosing cost-effective strategies to comply with SO2 limits and that transaction costs have been low.

Download or read book Sulfur Dioxide Compilance of Regulated Utility written by Don Fullerton and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Examination of utility phase 1 compliance choices and state reactions to title IV of the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 written by and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Title IV (acid rain) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 is imposing new limitations on the emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (N(subscript x)) from electric power plants. The act requires utilities to develop compliance plans to reduce these emissions, and indications are that these plans will dramatically alter traditional operating procedures. A key provision of the SO2 control program deaned in Title IV is the creation of a system of emission allowances, with utilities having the option of complying by adjusting system emissions and allowance holdings. A compilation of SO2 compliance activities by the 110 utility plants affected by Phase I is summarized in this report. These compliance plans are presented in a tabular form, correlated with age, capacity, and power pool data. A large number of the Phase I units (46%) have chosen to blend or switch to lower sulfur coals. This choice primarily is in response to (1) prices of low-sulfur coal and (2) the need to maintain SO2 control flexibility because of uncertain future environmental regulations (e.g., air toxics, carbon dioxide) and compliance prices. The report also discusses the responses of state legislatures and public utility commissions to the compliance requirements in Title IV. Most states have taken negligible action regarding the regulatory treatment of allowances and compliance activities. To protect mine employment, states producing high-sulfur coal have enacted regulations encouraging continued use of that coal, but for the most part, this response has had little effect on utility compliance choices.

Download or read book FGD Systems written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Title IV (acid rain) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 is imposing new limitations on the emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NO(subscript x)) from electric power plants. The Act requires utilities to develop compliance plans to reduce these emissions, and indications are that these plans will dramatically alter traditional operating procedures. A key provision of the SO2 control program defined in Title IV is the creation of a system of emission allowances, with utilities having, the option of complying by adjusting system emissions and allowance holdings. The central focus of this paper is the identification of sulfur dioxide (SO2) control options being implemented by the electric utility industry, current compliance trends, synergistic control issues and a discussion of the implications of Phase I decisions for Phase II.

Download or read book Acid in the Environment written by Gerald R. Visgilio and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-04-13 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the result of a conference held biannually at the Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College. It uses an interdisciplinary approach to focus on important ecological impacts of acid deposition. The book combines research findings and the policy analyses of experts from different academic disciplines with the positions advanced by representatives of various nongovernmental organizations.

Download or read book OECD Tax Policy Studies Taxing Working Families A Distributional Analysis written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2005-11-16 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taxing Working Families provides insights into how income taxes and social security contributions affect the distribution of income between different types of families in OECD countries.

Download or read book Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Statutes Regulations written by United States. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and published by . This book was released on with total page 2196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Tradeable Permits Policy Evaluation Design and Reform written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2004-05-11 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication offers valuable lessons for applying tradeable permits and provides links between policy evaluation and policy making general.

Download or read book Choosing Environmental Policy written by Winston Professor Harrington and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Hollands 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.

Download or read book Markets for Clean Air written by A. Denny Ellerman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-06-19 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book analyzes the behavior and performance of the market for emissions permits, called allowances in the Acid Rain Program, and quantifies emission reductions, compliance costs, and cost savings associated with the trading program."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book Handbook of Environmental Health Two Volume Set written by Herman Koren and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-06-24 with total page 1560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two-volume Handbook of Environmental Health, Fourth Edition provides a comprehensive but concise discussion of important environmental health areas, including energy, ecology and people, environmental epidemiology, risk assessment and risk management, environmental law, air quality management, food protection, insect control, rodent control, pe

Download or read book The Effect of Government Regulation on the Production and Use of Coal written by United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Small Business and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 932 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: