Environmental regulations attempt to protect public health and the environment from pollution by industry and development. RAND research has sought to develop methods for collecting interpretable, quantitative information about the costs and benefits of environmental regulations in areas where compliance imposes a financial burden, awareness of the health risks of noncompliance is lower, and officials are less trusting of the data on which regulations are based.
REPORT
Applies robust decision methods to evaluate California's transportation policies that considers multiple views of the future, and identifies strategies that consistently reduce emissions at acceptable costs regardless of future conditions.
REPORT
Biomass is an increasingly important source of electricity, heat, and liquid fuel. One near-term option for using it to generate electricity is to cofire biomass in coal-fired electricity plants. Factors to consider are plant-site modifications, changes in operations, costs, and logistical issues with delivering biomass to the plant.
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.
REPORT
The RAND Corporation research on energy and environment addresses a range of topics of relevance to U.S. and international audiences, including environmental quality and regulation, energy resources and systems, water resources and systems, climate change, and natural hazards and disasters.
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.
REPORT
The regulatory environment affects small business differently from the way it affects large ones, sometimes leading to unintended negative consequences. An improved understanding of this effect will help lawmakers develop policy designed to advance entrepreneurship.
NEWS RELEASE
May 3, 2007 news release: RAND Says Further Study Warranted on Save the World Air Technology.
COMMENTARY
Published commentary by RAND staff: Green But Unsafe, in Wall Street Journal, Europe Edition.
REPORT
Particulate matter (PM) comes from a variety of sources and is a mixture of many pollutants made up of several different chemical species. Monitoring to determine whether an area has met EPA standards requires a comprehensive approach.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Superfund liability may impose financial risk on investors and thereby increase firms' costs of capital.
REPORT
This publication contains the written statement of Lloyd S. Dixon submitted on March 10, 1995, to the Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Control and Risk Assessment of the United States Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
REPORT
This report focuses on the possible effect of the proposed Superfund Reform Act of 1994 on transaction costs -- costs resulting not from cleanup but from assigning liability for cleanup among the various parties.
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief describes the contentious interactions among firms that generated or transported hazardous wastes and are thus liable for cleanup.
REPORT
This report will be of interest to those evaluating Superfund's liability-based approach to cleaning up the thousands of abandoned or inactive sites across the United States that are contaminated with hazardous substances.
REPORT
This publication contains the written statement of Lloyd S. Dixon submitted on November 4, 1993 to the Subcommittee on Superfund, Recycling, and Solid Waste of the United States Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
REPORT
Congress enacted the Superfund program in 1980 to clean up the nation's worst inactive hazardous-waste sites. Superfund uses a liability-based approach intended to help government tap private-sector resources to finance and conduct cleanups.
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief examines the extent of the involvement of private parties with Superfund site cleanup.
REPORT
Concerns the regulation of the five most widely used chlorinated solvents.
REPORT
The Superfund program is intended to handle emergencies arising from the release of hazardous wastes, to provide long-term cleanup for a limited number of sites, and to encourage more responsible disposal of hazardous wastes in the future.
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