China’s exceptional economic expansion has led to rising energy demand and pollution as well as other environmental pressures. Strong efforts by the government have moderated emissions of some types of air and water pollution from high levels but others, including greenhouse gas emissions,...

Although “cap and trade” programs for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are often discussed as a viable program for the United States (U.S.), it is unlikely that any such program will be adopted in the near future, but there are other options available that President Obama and the...

Internationally the benefit sharing approach is promoted to encourage cooperation in transboundarywater governance. Costs of cooperation are so far under researched. Attention of few international studies is limited to benefit and cost sharing practices for dam projects. Here, the case study...

The Pennsylvania Constitution contains a unique Environmental Rights Amendment (“ERA”) creating an individual right to “clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.” The ERA also includes a public trust element...

This article introduces and overviews U.S. renewable energy policy. It describes the shape, content, and contours of that policy, including its emphases and functions in both the electricity and transportation sectors of the U.S. economy. To do so, the article builds a conceptual model that can...

China’s exceptional economic expansion has led to rising energy demand and pollution as well as other environmental pressures. Strong efforts by the government have moderated emissions of some types of air and water pollution from high levels but others, including greenhouse gas emissions,...

Japan has maintained tight control over its oil market with the result that Japanese consumers face higher net-of-tax oil product prices than other OECD consumers. However, in April 1996, the market will be deregulated. We explore, through simulation, the welfare effect of deregulation, taking...

This article examines two of the major water legal regimes in the Americas - that of Brazil and the United States. Both countries have extensive wet and dry regions and both hydro-regimes face a significant threat from global warming. Brazil, for instance, is home to between eight and fifteen...

Environmental policy discussions increasingly focus on issues related to technological change. This is partly because the environmental consequences of social activity are frequently affected by the rate and direction of technological change, and partly because environmental policy interventions...

For years economists have urged policymakers to use market-based approaches such as cap-and-trade programs or emission taxes to control pollution. The SO2 allowance market created by Title IV of the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) presents the first real test of the wisdom of...