Modeling the Impacts of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments

Thanh Luong, Frederic H. Murphy, Reginald Sanders, Susan H. Holte and Peter Whitman
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Thanh Luong: Energy Information Administration, 1000 Independence Avenue, Washington, DC 20585
Frederic H. Murphy: Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
Reginald Sanders: OnLocation, Inc., 8100 Oak Street, Suite 300, Dunn Loring, Virginia 22102
Susan H. Holte: Energy Information Administration, 1000 Independence Avenue, Washington, DC 20585
Peter Whitman: Energy Information Administration, 1000 Independence Avenue, Washington, DC 20585

Interfaces, 1998, vol. 28, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 changed the regulations for air pollution by replacing a set of mandated actions with a market mechanism for pollution rights, where electric utilities can buy or sell rights to emit sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ). We implemented the provisions related to the reduction in SO 2 in the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) to assess their impacts on energy markets. Because of the decentralized design of NEMS, the implementation was quite complex. We had to use Lagrangian relaxation, which turned out to be more difficult than first envisioned, and other techniques to arrive at a consistent equilibrium among the relevant energy sectors. As a result of these difficulties, we revised the NEMS model. This exercise illustrates that often an organization should be ready to take a step back from what exists to take a step forward.

Keywords: environment; programming; nonlinear (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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