Markets for Clean Air: The U.S. Acid Rain Program / Edition 1

by A. Denny Ellerman, Paul L. Joskow, Richard Schmalensee, Juan-Pablo Montero, Elizabeth M. Bailey

Overview

Markets for Clean Air provides a comprehensive, in-depth description and evaluation of the first three years' experience with the U.S. Acid Rain Program. This environmental control program is the world's first large-scale use of a tradable emission permit system for achieving environmental goals. 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. The book also includes chapters on the historical context in which this pioneering program developed and the political economy of allowance allocations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521660839
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/19/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	6.42(w) x 9.33(h) x 1.06(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of tables; Authors; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. A market-based experiment; 2. A political history of Federal Acid Rain Legislation; 3. The political economy of allowance allocations; 4. The pre-1995 trend in SO2 emissions; 5. Title IV compliance and Emission reductions, 1995–97; 6. Emissions trading: the effect on abatement behavior; 7. Emissions trading: development of the allowance market; 8. Title IV's voluntary compliance program; 9. The cost of compliance with the Title IV in Phase I; 10. Cost savings from emissions trading; 11. Errors, imperfections, and allowance prices; 12. Concluding observations.

Editorial Reviews

"This book provides important evidence in support of Dales' statement by thoroughly examining the first several years of the U.S. acid rain program. Markets for Clean Air is the definitive text on the U.S. acid rain program. The authors' analysis is careful and convincing. Both scholars and policy-makers will have a better sense of the virtues and pitfalls of market-based regulation after reading this book." Peter Cramton, Journal of Economic Literature

"Markets for Clean Air makes an excellent addition to this tradition of analysis by looking in detail at an important new approach to environmental regulation...The book presents illuminating, well-analyzed, and clear data, allowing even those without a strong background in economics to understand the reasons for the observed outcomes of the acid rain program." Environment

"This book provides a detailed evaluation of how this 'market for clean air' was established and how effective it has been at reducing sulfur emissions." Foreign Affairs

"The praise used to market this book accurately asseses it. It is the "definitive," "most thorough and careful," and "authoritative" analysis of the sulfur dioxide allowance-trading program. The authors, all of whom were at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, integrate five years of research into a coherent analysis that supports the program's economic efficiency...This book will appeal to those interested in environmental policy, regulatory analysis, investment decisions, and political economy. The writing and analyses are accessible to upper-division undergraduates and wonderful examples for graduate students; they will inspire new research efforts." Choice

"The book presents illuminating, well-analyzed, and clear data, allowing even those without a strong background in economics to understand the reasons for the outcomes of the acid rain program. (For those desiring more detail, the econometrics underlying this analysis is presented as well)." Environment

From the Publisher

Brings together the results of approximately five years of research conducted by the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at MIT<-->with which all the authors have been affiliated<-->and evaluates the public policy experiment with emissions trading initiated by Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the U.S. Acid Rain Program. Presented is the historical context in which the trading program developed, and quantifications of emission reductions, compliance costs, and cost savings associated with the emissions trading program, a program the authors call "remarkable." The authors hope this study will contribute to consideration of further market-based systems for meeting at least some demands for environmental improvements. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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