[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rff/dpaper/dp-14-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Costs and Consequences of Clean Air Act Regulation of CO2 from Power Plants

Author

Listed:
  • Burtraw, Dallas

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Linn, Joshua

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Palmer, Karen

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Paul, Anthony

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract
US climate policy is unfolding under the Clean Air Act. Mobile source and construction permitting regulations are in place. Most important, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states will determine the form and stringency of the regulations for existing power plants. It is widely believed that flexible approaches could be suggested in EPA guidelines or proposed by states. Various approaches would create an implicit price on emitting greenhouse gases and create valuable assets that would be distributed differently among electricity producers, consumers, and the government. We compare a tradable performance standard with three variations on cap-and-trade policies that would distribute the asset value in different ways. Keeping the value within the electricity sector by distributing it to fossil-fueled producers or consumers or spending on energy efficiency has smaller effects on average electricity prices than a revenue-raising policy. These approaches impose greater social cost, but comparable net benefits in the sector. Classification-JEL: Q54, Q58

Suggested Citation

  • Burtraw, Dallas & Linn, Joshua & Palmer, Karen & Paul, Anthony, 2014. "The Costs and Consequences of Clean Air Act Regulation of CO2 from Power Plants," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-01, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-14-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-14-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Newell, Richard G. & Rogers, Kristian, 2003. "The Market-based Lead Phasedown," Discussion Papers 10445, Resources for the Future.
    2. Paul, Anthony & Myers, Erica & Palmer, Karen, 2009. "A Partial Adjustment Model of U.S. Electricity Demand by Region, Season, and Sector," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-50, Resources for the Future.
    3. Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Economic ideas for a complex climate policy regime," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 24-31.
    4. Koichiro Ito, 2014. "Do Consumers Respond to Marginal or Average Price? Evidence from Nonlinear Electricity Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 537-563, February.
    5. Toshi H. Arimura, Shanjun Li, Richard G. Newell, and Karen Palmer, 2012. "Cost-Effectiveness of Electricity Energy Efficiency Programs," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    6. Burtraw, Dallas & Fraas, Arthur G. & Richardson, Nathan, 2011. "Greenhouse Gas Regulation under the Clean Air Act: A Guide for Economists," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-08, Resources for the Future.
    7. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2009. "Market-Based Policy Options to Control U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 5-27, Spring.
    8. Joshua Linn & Erin Mastrangelo & Dallas Burtraw, 2014. "Regulating Greenhouse Gases from Coal Power Plants under the Clean Air Act," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 97-134.
    9. Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Technology Flexibility and Stringency for Greenhouse Gas Regulations," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-24, Resources for the Future.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Palmer, Karen & Paul, Anthony, 2015. "A Primer on Comprehensive Policy Options for States to Comply with the Clean Power Plan," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-15, Resources for the Future.
    2. Becker, Jonathon M., 2023. "Tradable performance standards in a dynamic context," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Jonathan J Buonocore & Kathleen F Lambert & Dallas Burtraw & Samantha Sekar & Charles T Driscoll, 2016. "An Analysis of Costs and Health Co-Benefits for a U.S. Power Plant Carbon Standard," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-11, June.
    4. Kantamneni, Abhilash & Winkler, Richelle & Gauchia, Lucia & Pearce, Joshua M., 2016. "Emerging economic viability of grid defection in a northern climate using solar hybrid systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 378-389.
    5. David M. Newbery & David M. Reiner & Robert A. Ritz, 2018. "When is a carbon price floor desirable?," Working Papers EPRG 1816, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    6. Don Fullerton & Daniel H. Karney, 2018. "Potential State‐Level Carbon Revenue Under The Clean Power Plan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(1), pages 149-166, January.
    7. Tol, Richard S.J., 2017. "The structure of the climate debate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 431-438.
    8. Mathias Mier & Jacqueline Adelowo & Christoph Weissbart, 2022. "Complementary Taxation of Carbon Emissions and Local Air Pollution," ifo Working Paper Series 375, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    9. Healey, Stephen & Jaccard, Mark, 2016. "Implications of a US electricity standard for final energy demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 469-475.
    10. Humphrey, Jacquelyn E. & Li, Yong, 2021. "Who goes green: Reducing mutual fund emissions and its consequences," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Palmer, Karen & Burtraw, Dallas & Paul, Anthony & Yin, Hang, 2017. "Using Production Incentives to Avoid Emissions Leakage," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(S1), pages 45-56.
    12. Xenophon, Aleksis Kazubiernis & Hill, David John, 2020. "Adaptive mechanisms to refund emissions payments," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    13. Christian von Hirschhausen, 2014. "The German Energiewend - An Introduction," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    14. Paul, Anthony & Palmer, Karen & Woerman, Matt, 2014. "Designing by Degrees: Flexibility and Cost-Effectiveness in Climate PolicyAbstract: Substantially reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity production will require a transformation of t," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-05, Resources for the Future.
    15. Ying Sun & Fengqin Liu & Huaping Sun, 2022. "Does Standardization Improve Carbon Emission Efficiency as Soft Infrastructure? Evidence from China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Mier, Mathias & Adelowo, Jacqueline & Weissbart, Christoph, 2024. "Complementary taxation of carbon emissions and local air pollution," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    17. Anthony Paul & Karen Palmer & Matthew Woerman, 2015. "Incentives, Margins, And Cost Effectiveness In Comprehensive Climate Policy For The Power Sector," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(04), pages 1-27, November.
    18. E. Mark Curtis, 2014. "Who Loses Under Power Plant Cap-and-Trade Programs?," NBER Working Papers 20808, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Fell, Harrison & Maniloff, Peter, 2018. "Leakage in regional environmental policy: The case of the regional greenhouse gas initiative," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-23.
    20. Hayibo, Koami Soulemane & Pearce, Joshua M., 2021. "A review of the value of solar methodology with a case study of the U.S. VOS," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    21. Fullerton, Don & Karney, Daniel H., 2018. "Multiple pollutants, co-benefits, and suboptimal environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 52-71.
    22. Zhou, Yishu & Huang, Ling, 2016. "Have U.S. power plants become less technically efficient? The impact of carbon emission regulation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 105-115.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dallas Burtraw & Matt Woerman & Alan Krupnick, 2016. "Flexibility and Stringency in Greenhouse Gas Regulations," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 225-248, February.
    2. Hindriks, Jean & Serse, Valerio, 2022. "The incidence of VAT reforms in electricity markets: Evidence from Belgium," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2012. "US Status on Climate Change Mitigation," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-48, Resources for the Future.
    4. Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Technology Flexibility and Stringency for Greenhouse Gas Regulations," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-24, Resources for the Future.
    5. Boogen, Nina & Datta, Souvik & Filippini, Massimo, 2017. "Demand-side management by electric utilities in Switzerland: Analyzing its impact on residential electricity demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 402-414.
    6. Paul, Anthony & Palmer, Karen & Woerman, Matt, 2014. "Designing by Degrees: Flexibility and Cost-Effectiveness in Climate PolicyAbstract: Substantially reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity production will require a transformation of t," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-05, Resources for the Future.
    7. Aldo Gutiérrez Mendieta, 2016. "Determinantes de consumo eficiente de energía eléctrica en el sector residencial en México: un enfoque de regresión cuantílica," Graduate theses (Spanish) TESG 010, CIDE, División de Economía.
    8. Campbell, Alrick, 2018. "Price and income elasticities of electricity demand: Evidence from Jamaica," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 19-32.
    9. Miller, Mark & Alberini, Anna, 2016. "Sensitivity of price elasticity of demand to aggregation, unobserved heterogeneity, price trends, and price endogeneity: Evidence from U.S. Data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 235-249.
    10. Anthony Paul & Karen Palmer & Matthew Woerman, 2015. "Incentives, Margins, And Cost Effectiveness In Comprehensive Climate Policy For The Power Sector," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(04), pages 1-27, November.
    11. David P. Brown & David E. M. Sappington, 2017. "Designing Compensation for Distributed Solar Generation: Is Net Metering Ever Optimal?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    12. Burtraw, Dallas & Woerman, Matt, 2013. "Economic ideas for a complex climate policy regime," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 24-31.
    13. Don Fullerton & Daniel H. Karney, 2018. "Potential State‐Level Carbon Revenue Under The Clean Power Plan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(1), pages 149-166, January.
    14. Burtraw, Dallas & Fraas, Arthur G. & Richardson, Nathan, 2012. "Tradable Standards for Clean Air Act Carbon Policy," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-05, Resources for the Future.
    15. Paul, Anthony & Palmer, Karen & Woerman, Matt, 2011. "Supply Curves for Conserved Electricity," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-11, Resources for the Future.
    16. Brehm, Paul, 2019. "Natural gas prices, electric generation investment, and greenhouse gas emissions," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    17. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2014. "Self-Regulation and Regulatory Flexibility: Why Firms May be Reluctant to Signal Green," Working Papers 2014-11, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    18. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, 2022. "Rendre acceptable la nécessaire taxation du carbone. Quelles pistes pour la France ?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 15-53.
    19. Lucas W. Davis & Alan Fuchs & Paul J. Gertler, 2012. "Cash for Coolers," NBER Working Papers 18044, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Tatyana Deryugina & Alexander MacKay & Julian Reif, 2020. "The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 86-114, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate policy; efficiency; equity; Clean Air Act; coal; compliance flexibility; regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • L98 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Government Policy
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-14-01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Resources for the Future (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rffffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.