Efficient Emission Fees in the U.S. Electricity Sector

Dallas Burtraw, Karen Palmer and Spencer Banzhaf

RFF Working Paper Series from Resources for the Future

Abstract: This paper provides new estimates of efficient emission fees for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions in the U.S. electricity sector. The estimates are obtained by coupling a detailed simulation model of the U.S. electricity markets with an integrated assessment model that links changes in emissions with atmospheric transport, environmental endpoints, and valuation of impacts. Efficient fees are found by comparing incremental benefits with emission levels. National quantity caps that are equivalent to these fees also are computed, and found to approximate caps under consideration in the current multi-pollutant debate in the U.S. Congress and the recent proposals from the Bush administration for the electricity industry. We also explore whether regional differentiation of caps on different pollutants is likely to enhance efficiency.

Keywords: emissions trading; emission fees; air pollution; cost-benefit analysis; electricity; particulates; nitrogen oxides; NOx; sulfur dioxide; SO2; health benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 Q2 Q4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-02-45.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-02-45.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-02-45.pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Efficient emission fees in the US electricity sector (2004)
Working Paper: Efficient Emission Fees in the U.S. Electricity Sector (2002)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-45

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in RFF Working Paper Series from Resources for the Future Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Resources for the Future ().