IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rff/dpaper/dp-15-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Retrospective Study of EPA’s Air Toxics Program under the Revised Section 112 Requirements of the Clean Air Act

Author

Listed:
  • Fraas, Art

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Egorenkov, Alex

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

Under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was required to establish standards limiting air toxics emissions from industrial plants. This paper examines the effect of five of the largest cost rules issued by EPA in the initial round of air toxics rulemaking over the 1995 to 2000 period. Our estimates suggest that plants in the printing and publishing and pulp and paper industries realized important reductions in their air toxics emissions in the period between publication of the final rule and the effective date for compliance with the rule—although the reduction in air toxics emissions by pulp and paper mills falls short of EPA’s ex ante projections. However, our estimates suggest that plants in the other three industries—petroleum refining, pharmaceutical, and wood furniture—achieved little or no additional reduction in air toxics emissions over the compliance period in response to EPA’s air toxics rules. Finally, the paper explores steps that EPA should take in setting up future retrospective analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Fraas, Art & Egorenkov, Alex, 2015. "A Retrospective Study of EPA’s Air Toxics Program under the Revised Section 112 Requirements of the Clean Air Act," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-23, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-15-23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-15-23.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Konar, Shameek & Cohen, Mark A., 1997. "Information As Regulation: The Effect of Community Right to Know Laws on Toxic Emissions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 109-124, January.
    2. Lori Snyder Bennear, 2007. "Are management-based regulations effective? Evidence from state pollution prevention programs," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 327-348.
    3. Khanna, Madhu & Damon, Lisa A., 1999. "EPA's Voluntary 33/50 Program: Impact on Toxic Releases and Economic Performance of Firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, January.
    4. Xiang Bi & Madhu Khanna, 2012. "Reassessment of the Impact of the EPA’s Voluntary 33/50 Program on Toxic Releases," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(2), pages 341-361.
    5. 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.
    6. Wayne B. Gray & Ronald J. Shadbegian, 2007. "The Environmental Performance Of Polluting Plants: A Spatial Analysis," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 63-84, February.
    7. Gamper-Rabindran, Shanti, 2006. "Did the EPA's voluntary industrial toxics program reduce emissions? A GIS analysis of distributional impacts and by-media analysis of substitution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 391-410, July.
    8. Ronald Shadbegian & Wayne Gray, 2006. "Assessing multi-dimensional performance: environmental and economic outcomes," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 213-234, December.
    9. Bui, Linda T.M. & Kapon, Samuel, 2012. "The impact of voluntary programs on polluting behavior: Evidence from pollution prevention programs and toxic releases," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 31-44.
    10. Khanna, Madhu & Quimio, Wilma Rose H. & Bojilova, Dora, 1998. "Toxics Release Information: A Policy Tool for Environmental Protection," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 243-266, November.
    11. Robert Innes & Abdoul G. Sam, 2008. "Voluntary Pollution Reductions and the Enforcement of Environmental Law: An Empirical Study of the 33/50 Program," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 271-296, May.
    12. Martina Vidovic & Neha Khanna, 2012. "Is Voluntary Pollution Abatement in the Absence of a Carrot or Stick Effective? Evidence from Facility Participation in the EPA’s 33/50 Program," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(3), pages 369-393, July.
    13. Abdoul G. Sam & Madhu Khanna & Robert Innes, 2009. "Voluntary Pollution Reduction Programs, Environmental Management, and Environmental Performance: An Empirical Study," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(4), pages 692-711.
    14. Scott Marchi & James Hamilton, 2006. "Assessing the Accuracy of Self-Reported Data: an Evaluation of the Toxics Release Inventory," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 57-76, January.
    15. Linda Bui, 2005. "Public Disclosure of Private Information as a Tool for Regulating Environmental Emissions: Firm-Level Responses by Petroleum Refineries to the Toxics Release Inventory," Working Papers 05-13, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiang Bi, 2017. "“Cleansing the air at the expense of waterways?” Empirical evidence from the toxic releases of coal-fired power plants in the United States," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 18-40, February.

    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. Li, Huan & Khanna, Neha & Vidovic, Martina, 2014. "Third Party Certification and Self-Regulation: Evidence from Responsible Care and Accidents in the US Chemical Industry," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170492, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Huan Li & Neha Khanna & Martina Vidovic, 2018. "The effects of third party certification on voluntary self-regulation of accidents in the U.S. chemical industry," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 327-356, June.
    3. Carrión-Flores, Carmen E. & Innes, Robert & Sam, Abdoul G., 2013. "Do voluntary pollution reduction programs (VPRs) spur or deter environmental innovation? Evidence from 33/50," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 444-459.
    4. Evans, Mary F. & Liu, Lirong & Stafford, Sarah L., 2015. "Standardization and the impacts of voluntary program participation: Evidence from environmental auditing," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 10-21.
    5. Xiang Bi & Madhu Khanna, 2017. "Inducing pollution prevention adoption: effectiveness of the 33/50 voluntary environmental program," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(12), pages 2234-2254, December.
    6. Martina Vidovic & Michael S. Delgado & Neha Khanna, 2019. "Third‐Party Certification And The Effectiveness Of Voluntary Pollution Abatement Programs: Evidence From Responsible Care," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(4), pages 1751-1770, October.
    7. Bui, Linda T.M. & Kapon, Samuel, 2012. "The impact of voluntary programs on polluting behavior: Evidence from pollution prevention programs and toxic releases," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 31-44.
    8. Finger, Stephen R. & Gamper-Rabindran, Shanti, 2013. "Mandatory disclosure of plant emissions into the environment and worker chemical exposure inside plants," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 124-136.
    9. Lori S. Bennear, 2008. "What do we really know? The effect of reporting thresholds on inferences using environmental right‐to‐know data," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(3), pages 293-315, September.
    10. Claudia Poser & Edeltraud Guenther & Marc Orlitzky, 2012. "Shades of green: using computer-aided qualitative data analysis to explore different aspects of corporate environmental performance," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 413-450, January.
    11. Kathleen Segerson, 2013. "Voluntary Approaches to Environmental Protection and Resource Management," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 161-180, June.
    12. Harrington, Donna Ramirez, 2012. "Two-stage adoption of different types of pollution prevention (P2) activities," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 349-373.
    13. Donna Ramirez Harrington, 2013. "Effectiveness Of State Pollution Prevention Programs And Policies," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(2), pages 255-278, April.
    14. Xiang Bi & Madhu Khanna, 2012. "Reassessment of the Impact of the EPA’s Voluntary 33/50 Program on Toxic Releases," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(2), pages 341-361.
    15. Abdoul Sam, 2010. "Impact of government-sponsored pollution prevention practices on environmental compliance and enforcement: evidence from a sample of US manufacturing facilities," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 266-286, June.
    16. Alm, James & Shimshack, Jay, 2014. "Environmental Enforcement and Compliance: Lessons from Pollution, Safety, and Tax Settings," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 10(4), pages 209-274, December.
    17. Hyunhoe Bae & Peter Wilcoxen & David Popp, 2010. "Information disclosure policy: Do state data processing efforts help more than the information disclosure itself?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 163-182.
    18. Lange, Ian, 2008. "Evaluating Voluntary Measures with Spillovers: The Case of Coal Combustion Products Partnership," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2008-24, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    19. Zhou, P. & Delmas, M.A. & Kohli, A., 2017. "Constructing meaningful environmental indices: A nonparametric frontier approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 21-34.
    20. Mary Evans & Lirong Liu & Sarah Stafford, 2011. "Do environmental audits improve long-term compliance? Evidence from manufacturing facilities in Michigan," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 279-302, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    air toxics emissions; regulation; emissions reductions;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:rff:dpaper:dp-15-23. 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: Resources for the Future (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rffffus.html .

    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.