SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Financial responsibility rules are an increasingly common form of environmental regulation. Currently, the operators of landfills, underground petroleum storage tanks, offshore rigs, and oil tankers must demonstrate the existence of adequate levels of capital as a precondition to the legal operation of their businesses. Environmental financial responsibility ensures that firms possess the resources to compensate society for pollution costs created in the course of business operations. In addition to providing a source of funds for victim compensation and pollution remediation, financial responsibility is thought to motivate better decision-making, particularly regarding the management of long-term risks. This article describes both the promise of financial...

Environmental Remediation Law and Economies in Transition

Palavras-chave: Financial responsibility; Environmental liability; Waste disposal; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q28; L51; K32.

Ano: 1996

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10592

The paper discusses the design of environmental remediation laws in countries struggling with fundamental market and institutional reforms. Optimal cleanup standards, liability rules, and enforcement are discussed from the standpoint of both economic efficiency and practical implementation. Particular attention is paid to financing mechanisms and issues that arise during privatization.

Financial Assurance Rules and Natural Resource Damage Liability: A Working Marriage?

Palavras-chave: Environmental remediation; Liability; Privatization; Transitional economies; Environmental Economics and Policy; K32; P21; Q28.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10721

The study explores challenges associated with, and the feasibility of, financial assurance requirements for liabilities arising under U.S. environmental statutes, with a particular emphasis on liabilities associated with natural resource damages (NRDs). The overlap between federal NRD liability and financial assurance arises in the context of two financial assurance rules: one for waterborne vessels that carry oil or hazardous substances, and one for offshore facilities used for oil exploration, drilling, production, or transport. The report addresses the rules' history, their role as a complement to other forms of environmental regulation, and their impact on the regulated community and providers of coverage. Despite numerous difficulties and over...

Financial Responsibility for Environmental Obligations: Are Bonding and Assurance Rules Fulfilling Their Promise?

Palavras-chave: Financial assurance; Financial responsibility; Natural resource damages; Liability; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; K13; K32; Q38.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10673

Financal assurance rules, also known as financial responsibility or bonding requirements, foster cost internalization by requiring potential polluters to demonstrate the financial resources necessary to compensate for environmental damage that may arise in the future. Accordingly, assurance is an important complement to liability rules, restoration obligations, and other regulatory compliance requirements. The paper reviews the need for assurance, given the prevalence of abandoned environmental obligations, and assesses the implementation of assurance rules in the United States. From the standpoint of both legal effectiveness and economic efficiency, assurance rules can be improved. On the whole, however, cost recovery, deterrence, and enforcement are...

Global Compensation for Oil Pollution Damages: The Innovations of The American Oil Pollution Act

Palavras-chave: Financial assurance; Financial responsibility; Bonding; Environmental insurance; Environmental Economics and Policy; K13; Q38; K32.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10809

Via technology and operations standards, U.S. regulation exerts an important influence over worldwide marine safety standards. But in addition, several other aspects of U.S. law deserve wider international consideration and adoption. First, the Oil Pollution Act's natural resource damage provisions are an innovative and effective way to deter marine pollution and provide for the restoration of injured ecological resources. Second, the relatively strict financial requirements imposed on marine transporters help ensure that polluters, rather than the public, pay if damage is caused. Liability and financial responsibility rules are not unknown in other countries. But the United States has a longer history with implementation and applies its rules more...

Habitat Benefit Assessment and Decision-making: A Report to the National Marine Fisheries Service

Palavras-chave: Oil Pollution Act; Natural resource damages; Environmental liability; Financial assurance; Financial responsibility; Valuation; Farm Management; K13; K32; Q38.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10691

Boyd, James; Sanchirico, James N.; Shabman, Leonard A..

Habitats and the services they provide are part of our nation's portfolio of natural capital assets. As for many components of this portfolio, it is difficult to assess the value of their services, and this complicates regulators' investment decisions, especially when the alternative use is measurable. The principal objective of this report is to suggest possible strategies for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as it applies economic analyses and arguments in support of the agency's trustee responsibilities. Many approaches are possible, and as we discuss, the "right" strategy will depend on the questions asked, the resources available, and the agency's role in the consultation process. We discuss in detail bioeconomic modeling and ecosystem...

Intel's XL Permit: A Framework for Evaluation

Palavras-chave: Bioeconomic; Ecological indicators; Ecosystem services; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q20.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10904

Boyd, James; Krupnick, Alan J.; Mazurek, Janice V..

The paper develops a framework to evaluate permits granted to firms under the Environmental Protection Agency's Project XL -- with emphasis on the novel air permit granted to the Intel Corporation. We describe the permit, the process that created it, and the types of costs and benefits likely to arise from this type of "facility-specific" regulatory arrangement. Among other things, the paper describes the permit's impact on environmental quality, production costs, transaction costs, and Intel's strategic market position. The paper also considers how an estimate of the costs and benefits -- both to Intel and society -- might be estimated. While facility-specific regulation typically conjures images of production cost savings as processes are re-engineered...

Measuring Ecosystem Service Benefits: The Use of Landscape Analysis to Evaluate Environmental Trades and Compensation

Palavras-chave: Project XL; Tailored regulation; Environmental regulation; Cost-benefit analysis; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; L51; Q28; L63; K32.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10666

Boyd, James; Wainger, Lisa.

Ecosystem compensation and exchange programs require benefit analysis in order to guarantee that compensation or trades preserve the social benefits lost when ecosystems are destroyed or degraded. This study derives, applies, and critiques a set of ecosystem benefit indicators (EBIs). Organized around the concept of ecosystem services and basic valuation principles we show how GIS mappings of the physical and social landscape can improve understanding of the ecosystem benefits arising from specific ecosystems. The indicator system focuses on landscape factors that limit or enhance an ecosystem's ability to provide services and that limit or enhance the expected value of those services. The analysis yields an organized, descriptive, and numerical depiction...

Pluralism and Regulatory Failure: When Should Takings Trigger Compensation?

Palavras-chave: Ecosystem valuation; Wetlands; Spatial analysis; Landscape analysis; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q0; Q3.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10738

Boyd, James; Brennan, Timothy J..

The paper evaluates the desirability of compensation for regulatory takings. To do so, we describe a public choice model in which regulators' decisions are influenced by competing political interests. We consider how the political incentives of landowners, environmentalists, and taxpayers are affected by alternative compensation rules and in turn describe the regulatory decisions made in such a pluralistic political environment. Modeling the regulator's incentives in this way leads to the conclusion that compensation should not be paid unless environmentalists and property owners have unequal influence politically. Moreover, the model has several counter-intuitive implications when political influence is not balanced. For instance, if environmentalists are...

Retroactive Liability and Future Risk: The Optimal Regulation of Underground Storage Tanks

Palavras-chave: Regulatory takings; Compensation; Political economy; Environmental Economics and Policy; K11; D72; L51.

Ano: 1996

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10702

Boyd, James; Kunreuther, Howard.

The optimal design of environmental liability policy focuses on two primary policy issues: the cleanup of existing sources of pollution and the definition and enforcement of policies to promote prospectively efficient environmental risk reduction. Through the analysis of a policy toward a pervasive environmental risk -- leaking underground storage tanks - we analyze the effectiveness of an existing policy governing retroactive and prospective liability issues and suggest ways in which that policy can be improved. While we find some theoretical support for the public financing of UST cleanups, we also find the current system to be flawed in its implementation. In general, the paper argues that public financing of past pollution cleanup costs can lead to...

Searching for the Profit in Pollution Prevention: Case Studies in the Corporate Evaluation of Environmental Opportunities

Palavras-chave: Liability; Underground storage tanks; Risk and Uncertainty; K13; Q28.

Ano: 1995

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10768

The concept of pollution prevention, or "P2," signifies a new, proactive environmental mindset that targets the causes, rather than the consequences, of polluting activity. While anecdotal evidence suggests that P2 opportunities exist and that many have been pursued, there is also the perception that the pace of P2 is far too slow. To explore that claim--and to shed light on barriers to P2 innovation--this paper presents case studies of industrial P2 projects that were in some way unsuccessful. While based on a very limited sample, the evidence contradicts the view that firms suffer from organizational weaknesses that make them unable to appreciate the financial benefits of P2 investments. Instead, the projects foundered because of significant unresolved...

Stranded Costs, Takings, and the Law and Economics of Implicit Contracts

Palavras-chave: Pollution prevention; Financial evaluation; Environmental accounting; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q2; L65; O33.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10614

Brennan, Timothy J.; Boyd, James.

This paper explores ways in which economic analysis can help resolve the stranded cost controversy that has arisen in debates over electricity market deregulation. "Stranded costs" are costs electric utilities will not recover as power markets move from protected monopolies to an open, competitive environment. The paper begins with a description of the stranded cost problem, its magnitude, and the prominent arguments for and against recovery. We then turn to an analysis of contracts in order to understand whether there is, or should be, a legal duty to compensate utility shareholders for unrecovered costs. The paper also argues that efficient approaches to electricity deregulation will rely on more than an analysis of contracts. In particular, the politics...

Tailored Regulation: Will Voluntary Site-Specific Environmental Performance Standards Improve Welfare?

Palavras-chave: Stranded costs; Deregulation; Takings; Electric utilities; Contracts; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; L43; L94; K12.

Ano: 1996

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10688

Blackman, Allen; Boyd, James.

Increasingly popular tailored regulation (TR) initiatives like EPA's Project XL allow plants to voluntarily substitute site-specific environmental performance standards for command-and-control regulations that dictate pollution abatement strategies. TR can significantly reduce participants' costs of complying with environmental regulations. But in doing so, it can also provide participants with a competitive advantage. We show that this can have undesirable welfare consequences when it enables relatively inefficient firms in oligopolistic markets to "steal" market share from more efficient firms. One critical determinant of whether or not TR has such adverse welfare impacts is the regulator's policy regarding the diffusion of TR agreements among...

The Architecture and Measurement of an Ecosystem Services Index

Palavras-chave: Tailored regulation; Voluntary; Site-specific; Performance standards; Regulatory reform; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10740

Banzhaf, H. Spencer; Boyd, James.

This paper describes the construction of an ecological services index (ESI). An ESI is meant to summarize and track over time the magnitude of beneficial services arising from the natural environment. A central task of this paper is to define rigorously ecosystem services so that services can be counted in an economically and ecologically defensible manner - a requirement if ecological contributions to welfare are to be incorporated into the national accounts. This paper advocates a particular economic structure and relates it to index theory and makes concrete recommendations for the measurement of such an index.

The Benefits of Improved Environmental Accounting: An Economic Framework to Identify Priorities

Palavras-chave: Ecosystem services; Green GDP; Index numbers; Ecological economics; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10452

Improved environmental accounting is increasingly seen by corporate managers and environmental advocates alike as a necessary complement to improved environmental decision-making within the private sector. This paper develops an economic approach to the evaluation of environmental accounting's benefits and derives the value, and determinants, of improved accounting information in several production and capital budgeting contexts. Using concepts from managerial economics, finance, and organizational theory, the analysis identifies the types of environmental accounting improvement that are most likely to yield significant financial and environmental benefits.

The Law and Economics of Habitat Conservation: Lessons from an Analysis of Easement Acquisitions

Palavras-chave: Environmental accounting; Capital investment; Corporate decision-making; Environmental Economics and Policy; M41; Q20; G31.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10609

Boyd, James; Caballero, Kathryn; Simpson, R. David.

There is a growing interest in incentive-based policies to motivate conservation by landowners. These policies include full- and partial-interest land purchases, tax-based incentives, and tradable or bankable development rights. Using legal and economic analysis, the paper explores potential pitfalls associated with the use of such policies. Incentive-based policies promise to improve the cost effectiveness of habitat preservation, but only if long-run implementation issues are meaningfully addressed. While we compare conservation policies, particular attention is devoted to the use of conservation easements and in particular a set of easement contracts and transactions in the state of Florida. The easement analysis highlights the importance of...

The New Face of the Clean Water Act: A Critical Review of the EPA's Proposed TMDL Rules

Palavras-chave: Habitat conservation; Conservation easements; Land use policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q15; K11; R52.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10587

The "Regulatory Compact" and Implicit Contracts: Should Stranded Costs Be Recoverable?

Palavras-chave: Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2000

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10850

Progress toward electricity market deregulation has brought controversy over whether or not utilities are entitled to compensation for "stranded costs," i.e., costs utilities will not be able to recover due to the advent of competition in their markets. This paper uses a legal and economic analysis of contracts to address the desirability of utility cost recovery. First, underlying principles of law are reviewed to determine whether or not there is a legal presumption of recovery. Then, the analysis considers whether or not an implicit "regulatory compact" between utilities and regulators follows from principles in the economic analysis of law, particularly theories of efficient breach and implicit contracts. The paper concludes that recovery should occur...

Water Pollution Taxes: A Good Idea Doomed to Failure?

Palavras-chave: Stranded costs; Deregulation; Contracts; Electric utilities; Environmental Economics and Policy; L43; L94; K12.

Ano: 1996

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10803

Water pollution taxes, or effluent fees, have long been advocated by environmental economists as a regulatory approach to cost effectively achieve water quality improvements. The article reviews the arguments in favor of taxes and traces the history of the idea in U.S. policy debates. Particular attention is given to the institutional challenges presented by a tax system and its application in watershed contexts where transport phenomena are important. The article also addresses the question of why effluent taxes are so rarely seen in practice.

What Are Ecosystem Services? The Need for Standardized Environmental Accounting Units

Palavras-chave: Water quality; Effluent fees; Market-based incentives; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q25; Q28.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10611

Boyd, James; Banzhaf, H. Spencer.

This paper advocates consistently defined units of account to measure the contributions of nature to human welfare. We argue that such units have to date not been defined by environmental accounting advocates and that the term "ecosystem services" is too ad hoc to be of practical use in welfare accounting. We propose a definition, rooted in economic principles, of ecosystem service units. A goal of these units is comparability with the definition of conventional goods and services found in GDP and the other national accounts. We illustrate our definition of ecological units of account with concrete examples. We also argue that these same units of account provide an architecture for environmental performance measurement by governments, conservancies, and...