Climate engineering, adaptation, mitigation and prevention (with global warming)
Carbon taxes, fossil fuel taxes
Marginal-external-cost rule
Point-of-production strategy in regulating emissions from automobiles
Congestion pricing and congestion tolls
Retirement strategies for auto pollution
ZEVs and LEVs
progressive, proportional and regressive taxes (or regulations)
incidence of regulation
Study Questions
Describe and explain the market allocation of pollution.
Describe and explain the efficient allocation of pollution.
Why do emission charge policies and transferable emission policies lead to cost-effective allocations of pollution reduction, while command-and-control policies are not likely to lead to cost-effective allocations of pollution reduction? What are five sources of deviation from cost effectiveness with our command-and-control policies for air pollution reduction? Explain each of these reasons.
What are four reasons that emission charges and transferable emission permits differ in their efficiency?
How cost effective is our ERC trading program? What are 2 areas of concern as to the efficiency of this program? Explain each.
How have tradable emission allowances facilitated achieving the environmental goal at a lower cost?
How can environmentalists buy pollution?
Why must there be assurances to all participants that the ERCs created under an arrangement of global trading of greenhouse gas emission reduction must be permanent, surplus, quantifiable and enforceable?
What are the problems with the certificate of conformity for auto engines approach to auto pollution?
Why are uniform standards for auto pollution inefficient? What is a Two-car Strategy?
What are Mills and White's suggestions for a system of emission charges for automobiles? Why would these lead tom a more efficient policy in auto emission control?
What is the efficient mix of point and non-point water pollution?
Compare the costs of four main methods for allocating water pollution control responsibility mentioned in the text (LC, UT, UEC ZEC). Why are the relative costs the way they are?
What is the effect of limited liability on the amount of precaution in oil spills?
With toxic pollutants, why there is no externality problem with occupational or consumer hazards. What problem does lack of information pose? What incentive is there for those with the information (employer/producer) to share it?
What externalities are there with increasing the population?
What is the role of enforcement costs in comparing different forms of environmental control?
Explain why an acid-rain policy that uses the revenue from emissions charges to provide capital and operating subsidies for scrubbers is less cost effective than a straight emission charge policy.
Should a CFC emissions trading system make adjustments for location of the source? Why or why not?
How can the costs of pollution control be passed forward to the consumer? What happens in a competitive market? How does the elasticity of demand affect the extent to which the costs are borne by workers? What scale effects must be taken into account? What is the new-source bias?
To what extent does the incidence of pollution control costs fall on landowners in an area in the long run?
What is the incidence of pollution control costs in a monopolistic market?
How can uniform application of environmental policy in auto emissions control lead to a heavier costs on the poorer segments of our population than on wealthier segments?
How can less stringent policy accomplish more? Explain this with the example of the Zero Discharge Goal of our water pollution laws.