Economics 332: Environmental Economics

Web resources

General environmental economics information:

• Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.  Information about the field of environmental economics. Especially useful: a listing of graduate programs in environmental economics.
  
• EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics. Information on economic analysis of environmental policy, including a database of cost benefit analyses.
  
• Resources for the Future.  A Washington, DC think tank specializing in environmental economics.  They sometimes have research assistant positions for college students and recent graduates.
  
• Environmental economics blog.  Bits from the media and some research as well
  
• EPA's P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet.  Got any good ideas?

 Background on topics we will cover in class:

• Solid Waste:
• Basic facts about solid waste from EPA.
  
• Pay as you throw information from EPA
• Effect of disposal charge on households (must be on campus or authenticated to access). Paper by Fullerton and Kinnaman
• Tradeable permit programs:
• SO2 Allowance Trading:
• EPA's websites for its Clean Air Markets (SO2 and NOx)  
• An evaluation of the SO2 program  – A recent overview of the program by Dallas Burtraw and Karen Palmer of Resources for the Future.
• Clear Skies Initiative (Bush administration proposal to replace much of current Clean Air Act with tradeable pollution permits)
• Forbes article on mark up of Clear Skies bill
• Pro -- from EPA
• Con -- from Sierra Club
• Carbon trading
• Article from Bloomberg on the business of carbon credits  (recommended by an alumnus of Econ 332 who now works there!)
• Evaluating benefits of environmental policies
• Contingent Valuation (CV) study of Exxon Valdez spill  -- Journal article by Carson et al
• Value of life years -- NYT article by  Krueger
• U.S. Clean Air Act:
• Criteria Air Pollutants  Information on their harms, sources, and trends.
• New source review. The Bush Administration made important changes to this component of the implementation of the Clean Air Act.:
• EPA's press release
  
• Responses to EPA's proposal from environmental groups and the states (from Environmental Media Sources)
• Climate Change:
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  A UN Agency that tries to summarize consensus on the science and social science of climate change.  Received the Nobel Peace Prize this year (along with Gore).
• climateprediction.net Help resolve scientific uncertainty!  This British project runs climate simulations on your computer when your CPU is not occupied (along the lines of SETI).  You'll get information on the simulation your computer has performed and on climate modeling more generally.
• Climate Change coverage from the BBC
• Kyoto Protocol
• Text and details from UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
• NPR coverage
• Country emissions vs. Kyoto Protocol requirements
• Some economists views on the way forward:  (you will need to be on campus or authenticated through RU Libraries to access these):
• "Life after Kyoto"  by Nordhaus  (some of graphs shown in class from here)
• "A New Agenda for Global Warming" by Stiglitz
• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.  A proposed Northeast states greenhouse gas cap-and-trade
• Initiative's web site

The local environment:

• Air pollution in New Jersey. 
• The Raritan Watershed.  Pollution and water withdrawals.
• Value of New Jersey's Parks  Environmental economics from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection