IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v132y2019icp1206-1215.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmentally significant shifts in trace element emissions from coal plants complying with the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments

Author

Listed:
  • Gingerich, Daniel B.
  • Zhao, Yifan
  • Mauter, Meagan S.

Abstract

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAAs) reduced criteria air pollution from coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in the United States, but compliance strategies also altered the magnitude and phase of environmentally significant trace element emissions. The present work quantitatively assesses changes in trace element emissions stemming from CAAAs compliance, attributes these changes to specific CAAAs compliance strategies, and discusses implications for future environmental regulatory design. We combine plant-level coal purchase and installed air pollution control device data with a trace element partitioning model to approximate changes in trace element mass entering and exiting CFPPs in the solid, liquid, and gas phase between 1993 and 2017. Though US coal combustion decreased by 2% during this period, the vast majority of trace element emissions reductions stem from the 18-64% reductions in the fleet-wide average concentrations of arsenic, bromine, chloride, lead, mercury, and selenium in the combusted coal. Combined with the installation of air pollution control technologies, these shifts resulted in nationwide reductions of gas phase trace element emissions by between 49 and 68% for the elements included in this study. In contrast, installation of flue gas desulfurization devices increased the mass of trace elements discharged in wastewater. This work reinforces the value of multi-phase emissions regulations in ensuring that contaminants are not shunted from regulated to unregulated phases.

Suggested Citation

  • Gingerich, Daniel B. & Zhao, Yifan & Mauter, Meagan S., 2019. "Environmentally significant shifts in trace element emissions from coal plants complying with the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1206-1215.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:132:y:2019:i:c:p:1206-1215
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.07.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519304458
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.07.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gray, Wayne B. & Shadbegian, Ronald J., 2015. "Multimedia Pollution Regulation and Environmental Performance: EPA’s Cluster Rule," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-26, Resources for the Future.
    2. Jaramillo, Paulina & Muller, Nicholas Z., 2016. "Air pollution emissions and damages from energy production in the U.S.: 2002–2011," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 202-211.
    3. Muller, Nicholas Z. & Mendelsohn, Robert, 2007. "Measuring the damages of air pollution in the United States," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 1-14, July.
    4. Richard Schmalensee & Robert N. Stavins, 2013. "The SO 2 Allowance Trading System: The Ironic History of a Grand Policy Experiment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 103-122, Winter.
    5. Sugathan, Anish & Bhangale, Ritesh & Kansal, Vishal & Hulke, Unmil, 2018. "How can Indian power plants cost-effectively meet the new sulfur emission standards? Policy evaluation using marginal abatement cost-curves," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 124-137.
    6. Meghan R. Busse & Nathaniel O. Keohane, 2007. "Market effects of environmental regulation: coal, railroads, and the 1990 Clean Air Act," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(4), pages 1159-1179, December.
    7. Lange Ian & Bellas Allen S, 2007. "The 1990 Clean Air Act and the Implicit Price of Sulfur in Coal," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-25, August.
    8. Kopits, Elizabeth & McGartland, Al & Morgan, Cynthia & Pasurka, Carl & Shadbegian, Ron & Simon, Nathalie B. & Simpson, David & Wolverton, Ann, 2014. "Retrospective cost analyses of EPA regulations: a case study approach," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 173-193, June.
    9. Grubert, Emily, 2012. "Reserve reporting in the United States coal industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 174-184.
    10. Li, Mingquan & Patiño-Echeverri, Dalia, 2017. "Estimating benefits and costs of policies proposed in the 13th FYP to improve energy efficiency and reduce air emissions of China's electric power sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 222-234.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joseph E. Aldy & Maximilian Auffhammer & Maureen Cropper & Arthur Fraas & Richard Morgenstern, 2022. "Looking Back at 50 Years of the Clean Air Act," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 179-232, March.
    2. Chan, H. Ron & Chupp, B. Andrew & Cropper, Maureen & Muller, Nicholas Z., 2015. "The Net Benefits of the Acid Rain Program: What Can We Learn from the Grand Policy Experiment?," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-25, Resources for the Future.
    3. Kosnik, Lea & Lange, Ian, 2011. "Contract renegotiation and rent re-distribution: Who gets raked over the coals?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 155-165, September.
    4. Lange, Ian, 2008. "Contract Parameters' Impacts on Coal Prices," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2008-26, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    5. Stratford Douglas & Seth Wiggins, 2015. "Effects of Acid Rain Regulations on Production of Eastern Coals of Varying Sulfur Content," Working Papers 15-38, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    6. Qingxin He & Jonathan M. Lee & Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, 2016. "Cost savings and deregulation: an analysis of fuel cost savings in deregulated electricity markets," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(16), pages 1173-1176, November.
    7. Ian Lange, 2012. "Hedging in Coal Contracts under the Acid Rain Program," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(3), pages 561-570.
    8. He, Qingxin & Lee, Jonathan M., 2014. "Additional market incentives for abatement: An analysis of flue-gas desulfurization by-products," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 370-393.
    9. Daniel Leppert, 2023. "“No fences make bad neighbors” but markets make better ones: cap-and-trade reduces cross-border SO2 in a natural experiment," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 25(3), pages 407-433, July.
    10. Di Maria, Corrado & Lange, Ian & van der Werf, Edwin, 2014. "Should we be worried about the green paradox? Announcement effects of the Acid Rain Program," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 143-162.
    11. Jared Woollacott, 2018. "The Economic Costs And Co-Benefits Of Carbon Taxation: A General Equilibrium Assessment," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(01), pages 1-22, February.
    12. He, Qingxin & Lee, Jonathan M., 2016. "The effect of coal combustion byproducts on price discrimination by upstream industries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 11-24.
    13. Aldy, Joseph E. & Auffhammer, Maximillian & Cropper, Maureen L. & Fraas, Arthur G. & Morgenstern, Richard D., 2020. "Looking Back at Fifty Years of the Clean Air Act," RFF Working Paper Series 20-01, Resources for the Future.
    14. Raff, Zach & Meyer, Andrew & Walter, Jason M., 2022. "Political differences in air pollution abatement under the Clean Air Act," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    15. Karen Clay & Akshaya Jha & Nicholas Muller & Randall Walsh, 2017. "The External Costs of Transporting Petroleum Products by Pipelines and Rail: Evidence From Shipments of Crude Oil from North Dakota," NBER Working Papers 23852, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Hancevic, Pedro Ignacio, 2016. "Environmental regulation and productivity: The case of electricity generation under the CAAA-1990," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 131-143.
    17. de Perthuis, Christian & Trotignon, Raphael, 2014. "Governance of CO2 markets: Lessons from the EU ETS," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 100-106.
    18. LaPlue, Lawrence D., 2022. "Environmental consequences of natural gas wellhead pricing deregulation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    19. Jonathan M. Lee, 2015. "The Impact of Heterogeneous NOx Regulations on Distributed Electricity Generation in U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 15-12, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    20. Wolverton, Ann, 2014. "Retrospective evaluation of costs associated with methyl bromide critical use exemptions for open field strawberries in California," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 225-257, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:132:y:2019:i:c:p:1206-1215. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.