Building Science for Environmental Protection in the 21st Century - Science For Environmental Protection: The Road Ahead - page 106

but rather options for reducing toxic-substance use in the first place, with sci-
ence as a driver of innovation.
Literature that discusses and analyzes incentive prize competitions contin-
ues to emerge (Kalil 2006; Stine 2009). The federal government is relatively
new to this arena and most agencies are still figuring out how to use prizes to
fulfill their missions. As EPA is already discovering, using incentives can be a
successful way to drive innovation for mission-related topics.
Leveraging Environmental Protection Agency Actions to Promote
Private-Sector Innovation
Both intentional and unintentional actions by EPA can affect the willing-
ness of the private sector to invest in research and development. There have not
been formal analyses of the extent of such private investment, but it probably
dwarfs the investment made by EPA itself. EPA has the potential to expand the
investment in new and innovative science and engineering dramatically if it pro-
vides signals that are clear, selects instruments and polices that achieve a spe-
cific set of outcomes or performances, and allows the regulated community to
benefit from innovations (Jaffe et al. 2002, 2005; Popp et al. 2010).
Throughout EPA's history, its actions have resulted in substantial invest-
ment in new science and engineering by the private sector, at times with benefi-
cial results. Those actions have taken at least three forms:
 Regulations. EPA regulations specify results that need to be achieved
and dates by which they need to be achieved. Regulations have, at times, re-
sulted in substantial innovation that might not have been achieved without such
clear signals. An example is vehicle carbon monoxide emission standards, which
have resulted in substantial investment in developing and continually enhancing
the three-way catalyst and dramatically decreasing ambient carbon monoxide
despite large increases in travel (NRC 2003).
 Testing Protocols and Risk Assessment. In its pursuit of risk estimates
for a wide array of substances, EPA can strongly influence research and devel-
opment investment by the private sector. For example, recent efforts by EPA to
enhance its investment in computational toxicology and high-throughput screen-
ing have resulted in substantial private investment as well.
 Public Information. In requiring the public release of information on
emissions and discharges, EPA can set strong incentives for private investment
in both major process redesign and product substitution to shift to more sustain-
able production inputs. One cogent example is the Toxics Release Inventory,
which collects data on the disposal and release of over 650 toxic chemicals that
are submitted by over 20,000 regulated facilities each year; EPA makes the in-
formation available through a publicly accessible Web site. It is an example of
consumer-driven change that has led to important reductions in some chemical
emissions after its initial public release.