Economics and the Environment

1
Economics and the Environment

• Chapter 13 An Overview of Environmental
  Legislation

2
Cleaning the Air

• Clean Air Act (CAA) 1963 focused on federal
  assistance to the states mandates a safety
  standard
• Distinguishes two types of air pollutants
• Criteria (common) air pollutants
• Particulates, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide,
  nitrogen oxide, ground-level ozone (smog) and
  lead
• Carcinogenic pollutants
• These include anything hazardous or toxic that
  would hurt our immune system

3
(cont)

• Criteria pollutants Congress directed the EPA
  to develop the National Ambient Air Quality
  Standards (NAAQS)
• How is the CAA helping today?

4
Fishable Swimmable Waters

• The first national water pollution law was
  passed in 1899.
• Intent was to prevent industries from disrupting
  navigation by literally clogging rivers and
  streams with sludge, sawdust, or fiber.
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA)
  laid out an ambitious safety-based goal
• The achievement of fishable and swimmable waters
  by 1983
• Called for elimination of all risk zero
  discharge of pollutants into navigable waters by
  1985

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(cont)

• The Act also prohibits the discharge of toxic
  materials in toxic amounts
• Individual states are left to draft their own
  water quality emissions guidelines they must be
  sufficiently strict to allow swimming and some
  types of fishing.

6
Hazardous Waste Disposal on Land

• The 1970s was the decade of air and water
  pollution legislation the 1980s brought concern
  to land disposal of hazardous waste
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• The Comprehensive Environmental Response,
  Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) better
  known as Superfund

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(cont)

• Hazardous waste any substance that poses a
  potential, substantial threat to human health or
  the environment
• A typical hazardous waste dump will include many
  substances known or suspected to either be
  carcinogenic or to have adverse effects on
  reproductive, immune or neurological systems

8
Chemicals and Pesticides

• These two laws share the goal to restrict
  dangerous products from the environment to begin
  with
• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
  Act (FIFRA)
• Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

9
Endangered Species Protection

• Endangered Species Act (ESP) passed in 1973
  requires protection of a certain type of natural
  capital species regardless of costs
• The strict implications of the law became
  apparent in mid-1970s with the snail darter
• ESA federal agencies require a list of animals
  and plant species that are considered to be
  endangered or threatened

10
(cont)

• Like all other regulations, ESA imposes a costs
  on the private sector, and in certain cases,
  these have been large and dramatic
• ESA has received two other types of criticism
• Economic
• Biological