Allen S. Bellas

Empirical evidence of advances in scrubber technology

Abstract Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) units have been employed at US power plants for approximately 25 years to control sulfur dioxide emissions. Although it might be hoped that FGD technology would have improved over that period, theoretical work (e.g., Downing and White [Downing, P.B., White, L.J., 1986, Innovation in pollution control, J. Environ. Econ. Manage., 13, 18–29], and Milliman and Prince [Milliman, S.R., Prince, R., 1989, Firm incentives to promote technological change in pollution control, J. Environ. Econ. Manage., 17, 247–265]) has shown that the type of regulation generally favored in the US (direct regulation of emissions levels) provides poor incentives for technological improvements. Data on the design, performance and costs of FGD units at coal burning plants in the US are used to estimate a model of FGD costs and tests are performed in an attempt to determine whether progress has occurred. Results suggest that no significant progress has occurred in abatement technology, although costs of operating particular units at plants to tend to decrease over the lifetime of the unit.

The use of complementary and alternative medical providers by insured cancer patients in Washington State

Insurance coverage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is expanding. However, to the authors knowledge, little is know concerning CAM utilization among cancer patients under the insurance model of financing. In this study, the authors evaluated CAM provider utilization by cancer patients in a state that requires the inclusion of alternative practitioners in private, commercial insurance products.

Technological Change for Sulfur Dioxide Scrubbers under Market-Based Regulation

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) introduced tradable permits for controlling sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from coal-burning power plants and forced scrubbers to compete with other SO2 abatement options. While the flexibility of permits reduced overall compliance costs, a secondary benefit would exist if there were resulting advances in scrubber technology. A hedonic model is used to estimate the effect of changing regulatory regimes on scrubber costs. While scrubbers installed under the 1990 CAAA are cheaper to purchase and operate than older scrubbers, these cost reductions seem to be a one-time drop rather than a continual decline. (JEL Q52, Q55)

Evidence of Innovation and Diffusion Under Tradable Permit Programs

There have been five large tradable permit programs (US Acid Rain Program, US Nitrogen Budget Program, Los Angeles Regional Clean Air Management Program, EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and the US Lead Phase Down) in effect long enough to have potentially yielded data to test whether the program altered the rate of innovation and/or diffusion of abatement technology. This paper is an overview of the literature concerning empirical evidence (or lack thereof) of innovation by the firms that comprise the industries affected by these tradable permit programs. We briefly discuss the methods used to determine technological advance and then more thoroughly review existing studies examining advances in pollution control technology under permit programs. Finally, some overarching observations are presented.

Adoption of environmental innovations at US power plants

Purpose – This paper is a case study that aims to trace the adoption of innovation of the fabric filter, an innovative pollution control device utilized in the industrial energy sector, in order to profile early adopters of this technology.Design/methodology/approach – Following their introduction in the mid‐1970s, fabric filters, a new type of industrial scrubber, experienced aggressive growth, and by 1990, this new technology represented close to half of the new flue gas particulates (FGP) control units installed. The paper analyzes data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Form 767, using t‐tests, cross tabulations and binomial regression to identify the characteristics of those boilers, plants and utilities that installed fabric filters from the late 1970s to 1990.Findings – Analysis indicates that there are specific characteristics of early adopters of fabric filter technology such as the capacity and age of the associated boiler, the capacity and size of the utility, and whether the util...

The 1990 Clean Air Act and the Implicit Price of Sulfur in Coal

Abstract Prior to implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), many estimates of the marginal cost of SO2 abatement were provided to guide policy makers. Numerous studies estimated the marginal cost of abatement to be between

Mandate a man to fish: Technological advance in cooling systems at U.S. thermal electric plants

250 and

Technological Advance in Cooling Systems at U.S. Power Plants

760 per ton, though permits initially traded well below

Did state regulation of power plants cause an increase in pollution exportation

200 and remained below

Insurance coverage and subsequent utilization of complementary and alternative medicine providers

220 until 2004. We use a fixed effects estimator and a hedonic price model of coal purchases in order to determine the implicit price of sulfur. Data on contract coal purchases are divided into regulatory regimes based on when the contract was signed or re-negotiated. We find that purchases by Phase I plants made under contracts signed or re-negotiated after the passage of the 1990 CAAA show an implicit price of SO2 of approximately