The politics of markets: The acid rain control policy in the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:7107917

Kete, N

This thesis is a review and critique of the development of the acid rain control policy codified as Title IV of the Clean Air Act. The amendments include provisions to address acid rain-air pollution that has been transformed and transported over long distances. Title IV also embodies the first large scale adoption of market principles and economic incentives in the cause of environmental protection. The acid rain control amendments are being hailed as a break with past environmental protection practice and are being offered as a model for further regulatory reform. The thesis looks at the roots of the acid rain policy and considers the set of legal, social, and economic relations embedded in the policy which define the nature of its legal controls over pollution and its inverse, environmental quality. It explores whether the creation of the emissions allowance trading system changes the social relationships that prevailed under the pre-amended Clean Air Act. It responds to and rebuts the concerns of some critics that the policy represents an alienation of the public's right to clean air. A review of the acid rain policymaking process provides a recent and concrete example of the two central concerns inherent in public policy: the making of decisions that establish institutional arrangements, or structures, that both constrain and liberate individual action at the operational level; and the search for the boundary between autonomous behavior and collective decision making. The policy responds to regulatory reform recommendations concerned with improving the effectiveness, accountability, and cost-effectiveness of environmental protection. As a model for future policymaking, the policy goes beyond and encompasses more than the welfare economics ideal of static economic efficiency and the [open quotes]free market environmentalism[close quotes] emphasis on private property and common law.

• Research Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7107917
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290201 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics-- (1992-)
290300* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
ACID RAIN
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CLEAN AIR ACTS
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
LAWS
MARKET
POLLUTION LAWS
RAIN