Air Pollution : - Effects Of Pollutants And Public Policy Concern pot

Air Pollution Control Philosophies Part I Air Pollution : - Effects Of Pollutants And Public Policy Concern 2103555 Engine and Emissions Control Air Pollution Control Philosophies • The wish of all concerned with air pollution is to have a completely unpolluted environment at no cost to anyone. • An air pollution control philosophy is a fundamental set of ideas about how one determines what constitutes an appropriately clean environment, appropriate cost, and appropriate distribution of that cost. Air Pollution Control Philosophies • A perfect air pollution philosophy and its implementing regulations are – cost effective : gains maximum possible benefits. (reduced damages and discomforts) for the resources expended on pollution control. – simple – enforceable – flexible : enable to deal with special difficulties. And, – evolutionary : enables us to utilize new information on the effects of pollution and new developments in control technology without major overhauls of our legal structure or major revisions of existing plants. The Four Philosophies Most of all air pollution regulations are based directly or indirectly on these four philosophies (a) Emission standards (b) Air quality standards are currently use in many part of the world (c) Emission taxes (d) Cost – benefit standard Mostly been the subject of academic publications (not had much practical testing) Comparison of The Four Philosophies Good.GoodFairFair Evolutionary ability UnknownUnnecessaryFairPoor Flexibility UnknownExcellentFairExcellent Enforceability TerribleExcellent PoorExcellent Simplicity ExcellentFairGoodVery bad Cost effectiveness Cost – benefit Analysis Emission Taxes Air quality Standards Emission Standards Desirable Quality Emission Standard Philosophy • “There is some maximum possible (or practical) degree of emission control.” • This degree varies between various classes of emitters (eg. autos, cement plants) if this degree of control is determined, and every member is required to limit emissions to this maximum degree possible, then the pollutant emission rate will be the lowest possible. • THUS THIS MIGHT BE CALLED “A Cleanest possible air philosophy” Emission Standard Philosophy Examples (New source performance standards [NSPS] ) as 1998 version of 40CFR60 Coal – fired power plants, may not emit the following to the atmosphere:  Particulate matter more than 0.03 lb/106 Btu or 1% of ash solids in the fuel, whichever is less.  Sulfer dioxide more than 1.2 lb/106 Btu, or more than 30% of SO2 that would be formed if all the sulfer in the coal were converted to SO2 whichever is less.  Nitrogen oxides more than 0.6 lb/106 Btu for most coals or 0.5 lb/106 BTU for sub - bituminous coal. Air Quality Standard Philosophy • The air quality standard is logically called a “Zero-damage” philosophy. • This is based on assumption that the true situation for most major air pollutants is the threshold value situation . Air Quality Standard Philosophy Flow diagram representation of NAAQS process Emission Tax Philosophy • Laws based on an emission tax philosophy would tax each emitter of major pollutants according to its emission rate; – e.g. X cents per pound of pollutant Y for all emitters. • This tax rate would be set so that most major polluters would find it more economical to install pollution control equipment than pay the taxes. • Emission taxes have also been proposed in combination with air quality standard philosophy : in this combination, emission taxes would act as an added incentive to reduce emissions to lower levels than those required to meet air quality standards. • Air Quality Standard and Emission taxes would work in parallel. [...]...Cost-Benefit Philosophy • This philosophy suggests that we attempt to decide in as rational a manner as possible, – how much damage we should accept and – how much we should be willing to spend to reduce damages to this level Cost-Benefit Philosophy • The idea is illustrated in Figure 12 below: Cost-Benefit Philosophy • The ambient air concentration can be reduced by air pollution control... concentration can be reduced by air pollution control expenditures • The control cost goes up steeply as the ambient air concentration becomes small • The Minimum occurs when the slopes of the two cost curves are equal and opposite, or d ( Pollution control costs + Pollution damage costs) =0 d (ambient air pollution concentration) . Air Pollution Control Philosophies Part I Air Pollution : - Effects Of Pollutants And Public Policy Concern 2103555 Engine and Emissions Control Air Pollution Control Philosophies •. appropriate cost, and appropriate distribution of that cost. Air Pollution Control Philosophies • A perfect air pollution philosophy and its implementing regulations are – cost effective : gains maximum. the effects of pollution and new developments in control technology without major overhauls of our legal structure or major revisions of existing plants. The Four Philosophies Most of all air