Economic evaluation of the environmental effects of oil pollution. a practical lesson using three case histories

Conference · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1979 · Am. Pet. Inst., Publ.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6926931

Juhasz, F

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conducted a cost-benefit analysis in connection with proposed measures to retrofit the existing oil tanker fleet with segregated ballast tanks. For the three areas analyzed (New York Bight, the southwest coast of Wales, and the northeast coast of Scotland), the availability of data on physical damage is severely limited. This is due partly to the fact that environmental damage data are site-specific and cannot be generalized for other areas. Thus, data collection is difficult and expensive and the physical evaluation of world-wide measures is uncertain. While marginal changes in oil pollution levels might be insignificant at any particular time, their cumulative, long-term effect could be important. This cumulative effect may not necessarily be measurable with any precision. Because only the short-term effects can be measured and only few of them can be valued in monetary terms, the use of ''cost-benefit'' analysis in the chemical sense could lead to misleading results. However, economic evaluations of the environmental impact of marine oil pollution should be carried out because they can produce useful, practical results. This is especially true for the estimation of possible major accidental spills.

• Research Organization: OECD
• OSTI ID: 6926931
• Report Number(s): CONF-7903164-
• Journal Information: Am. Pet. Inst., Publ.; (United States), Vol. 4308; Conference: Oil spill conference: prevention, behavior, control, cleanup, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 19 Mar 1979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EVALUATION
TANKER SHIPS
RETROFITTING
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
INFORMATION
OIL SPILLS
WATER POLLUTION
POLLUTION
SHIPS
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
520200 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology