Linking Science and Technology to Society's Environmental Goals (1996) / Chapter Skim
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Use Social Science and Risk Assessment to Make Better Societal Choices
Use Social Science and Risk Assessment to Make Better Societal Choices
Pages 27-36
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From page 27... ...
Throughout air, water, and solid-waste management, the marginal costs of added controls have grown dramatically, making people more willing than ever before to ask whether the benefits of the next ton of pollution control are worth its costs. The exact magnitude is unknown, but EPA estimates that $150 billion -- about 2.4% of GDP -- is spent annually by businesses, individuals, and governments to comply with federal environmental regulation (EPA 1990)
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From page 28... ...
Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- issued executive orders requiring that federal regulatory agencies identify both the benefits and the adverse economic impacts of all major regulations and ensure, if relevant statutes permitted, that the benefits of a proposed regulation exceed the costs and the least-costly approach to meeting the environmental objective was chosen. In the 103rd Congress, before the Republican takeover of both houses, a measure to require even more cost-benefit analysis and more explicitness in risk assessment passed in both houses by substantial majorities.
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From page 29... ...
Furthermore, such approaches have the potential of providing greater benefit for each dollar spent on environmental protection. In contrast, command-and-control approaches have traditionally taken the form of outright bans on products, mandatory emissions reductions, and even requirements to install specific types of control equipment, such as electrostatic precipitators, stack-gas scrubbers, and water-filtration equipment.
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From page 30... ...
The nation does not have an unlimited amount of resources to allocate to environmental protection, and we need scien tifically and technically defensible information to help determine where we will allocate the limited resources. We should focus our environmen tal-protection activities where we get the biggest return on our invest ment in the environment.
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From page 31... ...
Although the verdict is by no means in, incentive-based approaches have the potential to deliver more than their promise. ANALYTICAL TOOLS: COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS AND RISK ASSESSMENT Analytical tools enable us both to predict the effects of regulatory interventions on human health and the environment and to value the effects and compare their benefits with their costs.
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From page 32... ...
, on the protection of endangered species, and on providing additional years of life to people in various health states. • Cost estimation, including an improved understanding of how technological change and market discipline can combine to reduce regulatory-compliance costs below initial estimates.
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From page 33... ...
value. SOURCE: National Research Council (NRC 1996b)
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From page 34... ...
Furthermore, the costs incurred to reduce risks often do not bear a consistent relation to the magnitude of the risks involved and the number of people potentially affected. The nation's existing environmental goals could be met less expensively or faster by substituting incentive-based approaches to environmental regulation for command-and-control approaches.
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From page 35... ...
• Can quantitative risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis be integrated so that the health or ecological end points that risk assessors predict are the ones that the public understands and cares about? To what extent could and should probabilistic techniques be used with worst-case assumptions?
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From page 36... ...
, Improving the Environment: An Evaluation of DOE's Environ mental Management Program (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995.) NRC (National Research Council)
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