IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v40y2019i1p55-72.html

External Costs of Transporting Petroleum Products: Evidence from Shipments of Crude Oil from North Dakota by Pipelines and Rail

Author

Listed:
  • Karen Clay
  • Akshaya Jha
  • Nicholas Muller
  • Randall Walsh

Abstract

Using data for crude oil transported out of North Dakota in 2014, this paper constructs new estimates of the air pollution, greenhouse gas, and spill and accident costs from long-distance movement of petroleum products by rail and pipelines. Our analysis has three main findings. First, air pollution and greenhouse gas costs are nearly twice as large for rail as for pipelines. Second, air pollution and greenhouse gas costs are much larger than estimates of spill and accidents costs. Third, air pollution and greenhouse gas costs of transporting fuel by rail and pipelines are one-fifth to one-tenth of the costs of combusting fuel in motor vehicles. These results suggest that the policy debate surrounding crude oil transportation may be putting too much relative weight on spills and accidents, while overlooking a far more serious external cost: air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen Clay & Akshaya Jha & Nicholas Muller & Randall Walsh, 2019. "External Costs of Transporting Petroleum Products: Evidence from Shipments of Crude Oil from North Dakota by Pipelines and Rail," The Energy Journal, , vol. 40(1), pages 55-72, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:40:y:2019:i:1:p:55-72
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.40.1.kcla
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.40.1.kcla
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.40.1.kcla?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Muller Nicholas Z, 2011. "Linking Policy to Statistical Uncertainty in Air Pollution Damages," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-29, June.
    2. Graff Zivin, Joshua S. & Kotchen, Matthew J. & Mansur, Erin T., 2014. "Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of marginal emissions: Implications for electric cars and other electricity-shifting policies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 248-268.
    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. Harding, Matthew & Kettler, Kyle & Lamarche, Carlos & Ma, Lala, 2023. "The (alleged) environmental and social benefits of dynamic pricing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 574-593.
    2. Steve Cicala & Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur & Nicholas Z. Muller & Andrew J. Yates, 2020. "Expected Health Effects of Reduced Air Pollution from COVID-19 Social Distancing," Working Papers 2020-61, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    3. Hill, Alexander, 2025. "The social welfare implications of electrification in the U.S. residential energy market," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    4. Godzinski, Alexandre & Suarez Castillo, Milena, 2021. "Disentangling the effects of air pollutants with many instruments," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    5. repec:osf:socarx:x6fuw_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Amir Zeighami & Jordan Kern & Andrew J. Yates & Paige Weber & August A. Bruno, 2023. "U.S. West Coast droughts and heat waves exacerbate pollution inequality and can evade emission control policies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Holland, Stephen P. & Mansur, Erin T. & Muller, Nicholas Z. & Yates, Andrew J., 2021. "The environmental benefits of transportation electrification: Urban buses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    8. Alex Hollingsworth & Taylor Jaworski & Carl Kitchens & Ivan J. Rudik, 2022. "Economic Geography and the Efficiency of Environmental Regulation," NBER Working Papers 29845, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Nehiba, Cody, 2024. "Electric vehicle usage, pollution damages, and the electricity price elasticity of driving," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    10. W.D. Walls and Xiaoli Zheng, 2020. "Pipeline Capacity Rationing and Crude Oil Price Differentials: The Case of Western Canada," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    11. Milan Dedík & Martin Kendra & Matúš Senci & Daniel Pribula & Martin Vojtek, 2024. "Progressive Methods of the Harmfulness Evaluation of Transport in Terms of Emission Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-24, November.

    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. Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur & Nicholas Z. Muller & Andrew J. Yates, 2019. "Distributional Effects of Air Pollution from Electric Vehicle Adoption," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(S1), pages 65-94.
    2. 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.
    3. Sheldon, Tamara L. & Dua, Rubal, 2018. "Gasoline savings from clean vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 418-424.
    4. de Chalendar, Jacques A. & Benson, Sally M., 2021. "A physics-informed data reconciliation framework for real-time electricity and emissions tracking," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    5. Andor, Mark A. & Gerster, Andreas & Peters, Jörg & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2020. "Social Norms and Energy Conservation Beyond the US," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    6. Erik P. Johnson & Juan Moreno-Cruz, 2020. "Congestion in the Electricity Transmission System Redistributes Pollution across Long Distances," CESifo Working Paper Series 8483, CESifo.
    7. Graff Zivin, Joshua S. & Kotchen, Matthew J. & Mansur, Erin T., 2014. "Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of marginal emissions: Implications for electric cars and other electricity-shifting policies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 248-268.
    8. Lang, Corey & Okwelum, Edson, 2015. "The mitigating effect of strategic behavior on the net benefits of a direct load control program," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 141-148.
    9. Soomin Woo & Zhe Fu & Elpiniki Apostolaki-Iosifidou & Timothy E. Lipman, 2021. "Economic and Environmental Benefits for Electricity Grids from Spatiotemporal Optimization of Electric Vehicle Charging," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-22, December.
    10. Will, Christian & Zimmermann, Florian & Ensslen, Axel & Fraunholz, Christoph & Jochem, Patrick & Keles, Dogan, 2024. "Can electric vehicle charging be carbon neutral? Uniting smart charging and renewables," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 371(C).
    11. Erbaş, Mehmet & Kabak, Mehmet & Özceylan, Eren & Çetinkaya, Cihan, 2018. "Optimal siting of electric vehicle charging stations: A GIS-based fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1017-1031.
    12. Olkkonen, Ville & Hirvonen, Janne & Heljo, Juhani & Syri, Sanna, 2021. "Effectiveness of building stock sustainability measures in a low-carbon energy system: A scenario analysis for Finland until 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    13. Bi, Zicheng & Kan, Tianze & Mi, Chunting Chris & Zhang, Yiming & Zhao, Zhengming & Keoleian, Gregory A., 2016. "A review of wireless power transfer for electric vehicles: Prospects to enhance sustainable mobility," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 413-425.
    14. Kim, Hyunjung & Kim, Dae-Wook & Kim, Man-Keun, 2022. "Economics of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    15. Abrell, Jan & Kosch, Mirjam & Rausch, Sebastian, 2019. "Carbon abatement with renewables: Evaluating wind and solar subsidies in Germany and Spain," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 172-202.
    16. Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur & Nicholas Z. Muller & Andrew J. Yates, 2016. "Are There Environmental Benefits from Driving Electric Vehicles? The Importance of Local Factors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(12), pages 3700-3729, December.
    17. Steven M. Smith, 2019. "The Relative Economic Merits of Alternative Water Rights," Working Papers 2019-08, Colorado School of Mines, Division of Economics and Business.
    18. Tamara L. Sheldon & Rubal Dua & Omar Abdullah Alharbib, 2023. "How Cost-effective are Electric Vehicle Subsidies in Reducing Tailpipe-CO2 Emissions? An Analysis of Major Electric Vehicle Markets," The Energy Journal, , vol. 44(3), pages 223-250, May.
    19. Linn, Joshua & Muehlenbachs, Lucija, 2018. "The heterogeneous impacts of low natural gas prices on consumers and the environment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1-28.
    20. Holladay, J. Scott & Price, Michael K. & Wanamaker, Marianne, 2015. "The perverse impact of calling for energy conservation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-18.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F0 - International Economics - - General

    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:sae:enejou:v:40:y:2019:i:1:p:55-72. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.