Air quality and water quality are often adversely affected by heavy industry and the production and use of fossil fuels, but environmental interest groups, government officials, and the private sector frequently disagree on policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions. While most research has focused on the cost-effectiveness of proposed policies, RAND has also devised a new methodology to evaluate policies while balancing economic development with environmental quality concerns.
Report
If policies aimed at large reductions of carbon dioxide emissions are enacted, more carbon capture and storage will be needed. RAND researchers explored the ability of the industrial base to support the expansion of carbon storage.
Commentary
Further study, including primary data collection in regions where extraction is occurring, will be important to track the magnitude of emissions and to insure that the DEP's permit requirements are adequate to protect human health and the environment, writes Aimee Curtright.
Commentary
Carbon dioxide has garnered the most attention in the climate change debate because it accounts for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions. But there is good reason to worry about methane, say Nicholas Burger and Noreen Clancy.
Journal Article
Producing natural gas from shale generates air pollutant emissions. RAND researchers provided a first-order estimate of air emissions, and the monetary value of the associated damages, from the extraction of shale gas in Pennsylvania.
Report
A RAND study evaluated U.S. Department of State contributions to the Global Methane Initiative, an international partnership to promote methane recovery and reuse. The study focused on the strategic contributions and program activities and outcomes.
Project
Climate change presents decisionmakers with a fundamental quandary: how to address a potentially serious, long-term, and uncertain threat. A joint project of RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment and the RAND Pardee Center sought to address this problem through basic research and computer modeling.
Journal Article
The unusually cold conditions in Arctic winter 2010/11 that led to large stratospheric ozone loss are investigated.
Journal Article
The use of biomass for energy production has increasingly been encouraged in the United States, in part motivated by the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to fossil fuels.
Journal Article
The authors perform a technical and economic assessment and estimate the economic costs and net GHG reductions from U.S renewable electricity mandates. GHG emissions reductions from such policies could be as much as 670 million metric tons per year. Depending on technological development, economic costs are $13-$45 billion per year. Lower costs depend on favorable technological progress.
Report
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ended a voluntary national program that encouraged facilities to improve all aspects of their environmental performance. The significant environmental challenges that the U.S. faces require it to continue to seek complements to traditional regulatory approaches.
Multimedia
California's dirty air caused more than $193 million in hospital-based medical care from 2005 to 2007 as people sought help for problems such as asthma and pneumonia that are triggered by elevated pollution levels.
Report
Assesses the effect of air pollution on medical spending: The authors determined how much failing to meet air quality standards cost various purchasers of hospital care in California over 2005-2007.
Journal Article
Assesses how park characteristics and demographic factors are associated with park use.
Journal Article
There is little evidence of an association between short- or long-term exposure to particulate matter air pollution and venous thromboembolism; and no evidence that hormone therapy is modifing such a link.
Journal Article
The authors investigated the association between physical and social neighborhood environments and fifth-grade students' physical activity and obesity.
Report
RAND researchers address pressing issues of relevance to U.S. and international audiences such as environmental quality and regulation, energy resources and systems, water resources and systems, climate change, and natural hazards and disasters.
News Release
Western Riverside County's Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan -- a sweeping effort to protect endangered and threatened species while accelerating the approval of transportation improvements -- has made significant progress, but needs modifying to reach its goals in Southern California's changing economy.
News Release
Alternative sources of fossil fuels such as oil sands and coal-to-liquids have significant economic promise, but the environmental consequences must also be considered.
News Release
By better managing environmental issues during deployments, U.S. Army units can gain tactical and strategic advantages that will help in combat and post-conflict operations, and boost overall mission success.
Journal Article
Investigates the ways in which terrorism is linked to education and poverty using data newly culled from Hamas and PIJ documentary sources
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