skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Using the market to clean the environment

Journal Article · · JAPCA, International Journal of Air Pollution Control and Waste Management; (USA)
OSTI ID:5153052

Policymakers should harness power of our decentralized market economy to develop strategies for protecting the environment. Protecting the environment through economic incentives can help break political logjams and facilitate real progress. Project 88, an environmental a study group, recommends the following. Developed countries could help preserve tropical rainforests by offering to assume the debts of less developed countries (LDCs) in exchange for a halt to deforestation. The fight air pollution and acid rain, Environmental Protection Agency could issue emissions permits, which companies could trade among one another. Government policies that encourage environmentally unsound use of land could be changed. To deal with toxic waste, the government could abandon the current system, under which the chemical and petroleum industries pay a tax to fund the Superfund program. Instead, companies could be charged for the toxic waste they do produce. To discourage illegal dumping, meanwhile, companies could be required to pay a deposit which would be refundable when they turn the waste in to designated facilities for recycling or disposal.

OSTI ID:
5153052
Journal Information:
JAPCA, International Journal of Air Pollution Control and Waste Management; (USA), Vol. 39:6; ISSN 0894-0630
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English