Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost of Pollution Control
There are costs associated with most efforts to limit and control pollution. Thus, rather than depending on busi-
nesses to police their own pollution control, pollution-control mechanisms often come in the form of laws and
regulations. This approach is considered a
command-and-control strategy,
where the government sets and
enforces legal limits. Although this method is very common and has led to success in some sectors, it is not al-
ways the most efficient and/or economical method. For example, emissions standards vary depending on the
country, the state, the industry, the age of the factories, and a variety of other factors; the costs of new techno-
logies and other adjustments needed to create compliance may simply be passed on to consumers. There are
also costs to the government (and, thus, to taxpayers) for the enforcement of laws.
In addition to regulating pollution standards, there exist market-based strategies to pollution control. For ex-
ample, making companies responsible for the cleanup of any pollution of their land creates incentives for com-
panies to pollute the land less in the first place. Another way to create incentives for pollution reduction (used
mainly in Europe) is to mandate that companies pay
pollution fees
,
which are taxes levied on polluters relative
to the amount of pollution discharged, frequently with a cap on the total amount of pollution allowed. This cap-
and-trade system allows relatively clean companies to sell pollution permits to companies that exceed the cap
(which buy the permits to avoid penalties). With
permit trading,
including
marketable emissions permits
,
companies can buy, sell, and trade credits for the amount of pollution they are allotted to emit. Some compan-
ies will pollute more, while others will pollute less, but cap-and-trade ensures that all companies have an eco-
nomic incentive to pollute less. This approach was used to successfully reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions in the
United States.
In yet another approach, instead of creating laws and regulations to control pollution, federally funded pro-
grams provide grants to support local remediation programs. An example of this in the United States is the Su-
perfund, which contributes federal dollars to clean up hazardous waste sites in situations in which a responsible
party is not identified or is unable to pay.
