Ben model: Calculates violators` economic benefits from noncompliance, version 4.2 (for microcomputers). Software

Technical Report · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:26224

The model calculates the economic benefit that a company gains by delaying payment necessary for compliance with environmental regulations or permits. While the primary purpose of the BEN model is to calculate the economic benefit of EPA regulation noncompliance, the model may also be used to calculate the after tax net present value of a pollution prevention or mitigation project. BEN is not limited to just environmental regulations; rather, it is a cost analysis model that presents savings from delaying or avoiding any expenditures. The software is extremely easy to use. Users are taken through a series of prompts to enter specified costs including initial capital investments, nondepreciable expenditures, annual expenses, dates of compliance and noncompliance, data of penalty payment, useful life of pollution control equipment, income tax rates, inflation rate, and discount rate. The savings from not paying are then calculated. In cases of U.S. EPA enforcement actions, this number becomes the agency`s bottom line penalty number in any settlement negotiations. If EPA actually goes to hearing or court, it uses an expert witness to present the defendent`s economic gain from noncompliance, not the BEN model. On screen `help` information is available at any time.

• Research Organization: Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Enforcement
• OSTI ID: 26224
• Report Number(s): PB--95-502514/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
ENFORCEMENT
FINANCIAL DATA
POLLUTION ABATEMENT
POLLUTION REGULATIONS