Benefits Approach

Abstract

A few of the provisions of the Clean Air Act mandate benefits-based standards as the regulatory approach for reducing emissions. Because the Clean Air Act requires setting standards in these cases based on balancing benefits and costs, there should be a close correspondence between the benefits from improvements in human health and welfare and the costs of emission reductions. This correspondence should result in: (1) aggregate benefits from the regulation exceeding aggregate costs, and (2) benefits exceeding costs at most mills. The absence of air quality modeling and formal benefit-cost comparisons in implementing the benefits-based standard for total reduced sulfur (TRS) limits the likelihood of achieving a reasonable balance in all circumstances, however. Consequently, the relationship between benefits and costs is likely to vary across unique geographic situations, but not nearly to the extent or to the degree that it would with technology- or ambient-based standards.