In 1996 the Environmental Protection Agency released draft guidelines intended to encourage the development of watershed-based effluent trading systems. Effluent trading systems allow dischargers the opportunity to transfer legal and financial requirements for effluent control in order to lower...

Numerous reforms to introduce financial incentives and flexibility into the Clean Water Act have been proposed. Cooperative organizational forms that consolidate multiple regulated entities under a single organizational umbrella are an overlooked, but potentially useful avenue for reform. In...

Federal and state regulatory agencies frequently support and encourage the use of market-based effluent trading to achieve social water quality goals. This paper evaluates the design of the recently approved Virginia Nutrient Trading Program. The cost implications of setting a near limit of...

The contribution of nonmarket valuation studies to decisions about the operation of nonfederal hydroelectric facilities is examined. Hydropower licensing reforms by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to better weigh market and nonmarket tradeoffs did not require or use nonmarket valuation....

This paper compares agricultural nonpoint source crediting procedures between the Pennsylvania and Virginia nutrient trading programs. Differences in farm-level credit production across states will be evaluated for agricultural operations, holding nutrient reduction technologies constant. The...

Emission and effluent trading programs are increasingly being advocated for the nation’s air and water quality programs. However important distinctions must be drawn between credit and allowance trading, based on how much decision-making authority is transferred from regulators to...

The cost estimates to meet agriculture reduction goals for the Bay run into the billions. Most cost models, however, are based on simplifying behavioral assumptions about public transaction costs, adoption rates, and implementation costs of agricultural nutrient-reducing practices (called best...

Economists and economic analysis can play different roles in the development of water quality management programs. Economists may develop cost analysis for improving regulatory program implementation or design institutional arrangements for market-like program. We argue that cost analysis may be...