Ben model: Calculates violators` economic benefits from noncompliance (version 4.3) (for microcomputers). Model-Simulation

Technical Report · Sun Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:393226

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, date 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 defendant`s economic gain from noncompliance, not the BEN model. The user`s manual contains all the formulas that make up the BEN computer model. On screen `help` information is available at any time.

• Research Organization: Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Enforcement
• OSTI ID: 393226
• Report Number(s): PB--96-503875/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
ENFORCEMENT
FINANCIAL DATA
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
US SUPERFUND