Electric and natural gas are the two major sources of energy for residents of Washington State. Several states have adopted a policy whereby utility companies decide on the choice of mixes of resources by incorporating cost effectiveness, conservation and externalities. Externalities could...

In the past environmental management practices have been based on disparate analysis of the impacts of pollutants on selected components of ecosystems. However, holistic analysis of emission reduction strategies is necessary to justify that actions taken to protect the environment would not...

Environmental regulation can be broadly divided into those that follow the top-down and bottom-up approaches. The two approaches have similar objective with respect to environmental protection and sustainability. However, the success with which each approach achieves goals of environmental...

In the first year after the inception of the Swedish Green Car Rebate (GCR), green cars had carved over 25 percent market share in the new vehicle market, an effect of unprecedented scale if compared to recent policies incentivizing the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles. By awarding vehicles...

In the past, environmental decision making has been based on analysis of policy options with respect to emission reduction, deposition or concentration of pollutants and the design of preventive strategies using disparate single-model and discipline results. It was impossible to obtain optimal...

VOCs and NOx are the primary precursors in the formation of ground-level ozone (SMOG). The rate of formation is a function of concentrations, temperature and sunlight strength. Both pollutants as well as the ozone itself can be transported over very long distances. Therefore, it can affect...

The 1990 Canadian long-range transport of air pollutants and acid deposition report divided North America into 40 sources of emission and 15 sensitive receptor sites. For the purpose of national policy making and international negotiation, the use of these large sources and few receptors may...

There has been a lot of debate regarding the impact of emissions of pollutants on human health and the environment. Epidemiological studies tend to show the impact of increased ambient concentrations of pollutants on increased hospital admissions, mortality, morbidity, respiratory problems, etc....

The U.S. and China are the world’s largest and second largest CO2 emitters, respectively, and to what extent the U.S. and China get involved in combating global climate change is extremely important both for lowering compliance costs of climate mitigation and adaptation and for moving...

China has been the world’s second largest carbon emitter for years. Recent studies show that China had overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest emitter in 2007. This has put China on the spotlight, just at a time when the world community starts negotiating a post-Kyoto climate regime under...