Pharino Sustainable Water Quality Management Policy

The Role of Trading: The U.S. Experience
1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5863-9
Verlag: Springer Netherland
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 142 Seiten, Web PDF

Reihe: Engineering (R0)

After the success of the Acid Rain Program, pollution trading became a more acceptable policy in dealing with pollution problems. Trading of pollution credits and allowances helps to achieve environmental goals faster and more co- effectively. Although for the past 20 years water pollution trading had been in effect for as long as air pollution trading, many water quality trading programs – as compared to air pollution trading programs – lack success in the implementation of trading. The motivation factor for my work came from an interest in learning and understanding what the differences were that culminated in different levels of success being achieved between water pollution trading programs and air pollution trading programs. Moreover, another incentive was not only to understand what the role of trading should be for managing water quality, but also how to better improve the water quality trading programs in order to become successful. This book focuses on the examination of problems existing within a mark- based system for water pollution control policy in the United States, and provides essential information for introducing market-based instruments for water quality management, presents general situations where trading may or may not work, and offers a recommendation for those interested in developing new water trading programs as a suitable option for solving localized water pollution, for ?ne-tuning the system after implementation, and for overcoming trading obstacles. The book is divided into 5 chapters.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pharino, C.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Background.- Concept, Framework and Considerations for Water Quality Trading.- Overview of Observations in Water Quality Trading.- Potential Role of Trading in Water Area.- Conclusion.

Leseproben

Chapter 2 CONCEPT, FRAMEWORK AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR WATER QUALITY TRADING (P. 19)

Introduction
Today, tradable permit systems are increasing in importance and acceptance by the regulators, and the regulated, to manage various environmental problems (Vig and Kraft 2000, Harrington et al. 2004, OECD 2004). After Coase proposed the basic foundation underlying tradable permits on external costs (Coase 1960), and the later development of the concept and use of marketable permit system elaborated by Crocker on controlling air pollution and Dales on regulating water use (Crocker 1966, Dales 1968), the theoretical reasons why trading of pollution rights should be superior to the direct regulation became well known (Stavins 2000, Ellerman 2003, Tietenberg 2004).

Hahn et al and Tietenberg made a review and evaluation of several attempts to introduce market-based instruments into environmental regulation and were optimistic about the applications (Tietenberg 1985, 1990, Hahn and Hester 1989, Hahn 1989). In applying transferable permits to water problems, the earlier experiment conducted in the Fox River was studied by O’Neil et al. (1983).

Water pollution trading may be referred to as ef.uent trading or water quality trading (WQT).Within the past decade, interest in investigating the application of tradable permits in water quality trading has increased. The basic concepts, the fundamental elements, and the mechanics of how trading operates are presented in three sections of this chapter, which will lay the essential foundation for establishing a WQT program.

The first section explains concepts about tradable permit system for water quality trading including definition and classification, permit lifetime, allocation strategy and tradable permit schemes.

The second section describes significant elements (legal, economic and technical) required for establishing the water quality trading program. The third section discusses issues affecting the program’s performance which a program designer needs to take into consideration when developing a program.

2.1 Concept about Tradable Permit Systems

2.1.1 Definition and Classification
The most general use of a tradable permit defined by Ellerman (2005) is as "a transferable right to a common pool resource". The definition of a tradable permit for the environmental application is "a transferable right to emit a substance that can create pollution" to a common pool resource, i.e. air and water (Ellerman 2005).

The author pointed out that the tradable permit for pollution trading is different from the conventional permit implemented in command-and-control regulation in that it is transferable and may not define specific conditions to operate, set standards, or prescribe specific technologies to limit discharges. Contents of permits and conditions of user rights for resource usage may have a significant effect on trading program performance.

Tietenberg argued that the permit should at least provide some security to the permit holders, while still making it clear that it is not a property right (Tietenberg 2000). The crucial features for tradable permit systems are: (1) Entitlement – legally protected entitlement of discharge to a speciied limit, (2) Transferability – right to convey all or part of the entitlement to others, and (3) Enforceability – right to protect the entitlement and ensure compliance of the terms of transfer (Tietenberg 2003a, b).