Law Commons^™

The End Externalities Manifesto: Restatement, Loose Ends, And Unfinished Business, J. B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Don Elliott and Dan Esty were among the chief architects of Environmental Law 2.0-the shift that infused so-called command-and- control regulatory regimes with market-based tools in search of cost- effective solutions. The mix of incentives, trading, banking, reporting, bubbles, and other techniques revolutionized the way we think about how to attack environmental problems like pollution and habitat loss.

In their End Environmental Externalities Manifesto ("Manifesto") they are at it again. This time, however, their proposed revolution goes in a different direction. They argue that the guiding light of economic efficiency, which took environmental law far in improving environmental conditions, is …

A Balanced Prescription For More Effective Environmental Regulations, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Government agencies increasingly base the structure and approval of environmental regulations on a benefit-cost test. For regulations that pass this test, total benefits exceed total costs. Under a benefit-cost framework, the degree of regulatory stringency is set at an economically efficient level whereby the tightness of the regulation is increased up to the point where the incremental benefits equal the incremental costs. Setting regulatory standards to achieve the efficient degree of pollution control does not fully discourage entry into polluting industries, provide compensation to those harmed by pollution, or establish meaningful incentives for effective enforcement. This article proposes that the …