Award Date

5-1-1998

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Environmental Science

Advisor 1

Dr. Helen Neill

Number of Pages

37

Abstract

Traditional regulatory approaches for environmental protection do not consider

the costs and benefits of the standards they impose. Further, imposing strict performance

standards on firms with heterogeneous control costs leads to an inefficient allocation of resources devoted to pollution control. This paper explores the use of emission allowance trading as a way to improve economic efficiency within the context of environmental protection. PM10 air pollution from sources within the Las Vegas Valley is used as the case study.

This paper found that an emission trading

program in this particular case study would not live up to the theoretical expectations. Although, emissions trading did show some potential for reducing the amount of money spent to reduce PM10 air pollution, technical problems such as increased monitoring costs, and complicated trading rules would detract the any cost savings that would accrue through allowance trades. In addition, political and legal factors would pose a significant obstacle to implementing the considered trading program.

Although, this particular case study did not prove to be especially conducive to a decentralized regulatory structure, allowance trading proved to be an attractive policy instrument, offering many advantages over traditional regulatory approaches.

Keywords

Air pollution prevention; Emissions trading economic aspects; Las Vegas Valley (Nev.); Nevada

Disciplines

Environmental Health and Protection | Environmental Sciences

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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