This paper explores the extent to which emissions limits on stack concentrations under the Large Combustion Plant (LCP) Directive succeeded in mitigating local air pollutants from thermal power stations in the European Union. We take advantage of the discontinuities in regulation status to show...

I estimate the level of emissions cost pass-through to hourly wholesale electricity prices in Germany, based on spot market data. I control for contemporaneous shocks to demand and supply by constructing a detailed supply curve for fossil generation, and intersecting it with residual demand for...

On June 25, 2013, President Obama announced his plan to introduce carbon dioxide emission standards for electricity generation. This paper proposes an efficiency analysis approach that addresses which mission rates (and standards) would be feasible if the existing generating units adopt best...

This article focuses on legal developments since mid-2011 relating to the control of both carbon dioxide (CO2) and conventional pollutants from coal-fired electric power plants. It deals as briefly as possible with pre-2011 issues that are discussed in the author's numerous publications over the...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched a major new greenhouse gas reduction initiative in June 2014 through the release of its proposed Carbon Pollution Standards for Existing Power Plants. Better known as the Clean Power Plan (CPP), EPA outlined a proposal that would seek an overall...

Over the coming decade, the power sector is expected to invest ~7.2 trillion USD in power plants and grids globally, much of it into CO2-emitting coal and gas plants. These assets typically have a long lifetime and commit large amounts of (future) CO2 emissions. Here, we analyze the historic...

How does private equity ownership affect firms' environmental performance? Using electricity generating unit level data from U.S. fossil fuel power plants, we find that private equity-backed buyouts reduce output-scaled CO2 and NOx emissions by 5.5% and 8.1%, respectively. The declines are...