On December 28, 2018, the Trump administration announced that the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS) that restrict mercury emissions were too costly and without enough benefits to make them necessary. Those in favor of the restrictions argue that the real cost comes from changing the standards. Why is mercury an issue? Mercury is a …
This past week, newly elected governor Janet Mills ended former governor Paul LePage’s ban on wind farms in certain areas of the state. As an environmental economist, I am in favor of increased wind power in the state. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and in certain circumstances, hydropower, will help with our much …
By the time this blog post comes out, the “yellow vest” riots in France may be old news. But this fall, people took to the streets of France, seemingly angered by a proposed fuel tax. Opponents of carbon taxes were quick to declare victory: if France, a country with a fairly liberal (in the American sense …
Property Value Impacts of Wind Turbines and the Influence of Attitudes toward Wind Energy Richard J. Vyn Land Economics, Volume 94, Number 4, November 2018, pp. 496-516 (Article) This article uses a hedonic analysis to investigate the effect of wind turbines on property values, and whether that effect seems to differ between communities that are …
Date: January 8, 2019 Time: 4:00PM Location: Gulf of Maine Research Institute, 350 Commercial Street, Portland Dr. Rachel Bouvier will be the featured presenter at the next Waterfront Alliance Meeting on Tuesday, January 9th. She will be joined by other community members as part of a discussion on the topic: Crafting an Economically Sustainable Working …
You’ve probably heard about some of the recent changes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But you might have missed the proposal about particulate matter (PM), since it didn’t get as much press. Or even if you saw it, you might not have recognized all the implications because they’re not immediately obvious. This proposal is …
Here’s something to think about during the next rainstorm: where does all that rainwater go? For most of us, it’s not something to which we give more than a passing thought. But if you’re concerned about saving money and protecting water quality, it’s worth a closer look. In many older New England towns, the infrastructure …
1. “Estimating the Societal Benefits of Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Through Peatland estoration,” Ecological Economics Volume 154, December 2018, Pages 145-155, Emily Pindilli, Rachel Sleeter, Dianna Hogan We at rbouvier consulting are very interested in ecosystem restoration, and in particular, methods that economists might use to measure the benefits of ecosystem restoration. This article presents an …
Vulnerability assessments are a hot topic in sustainability and climate adaptation circles these days. It is the process of looking at a system and trying to figure out what might make that system fail under particular circumstances so that you can begin to find ways to mitigate those possible failures. The system might be anything …
1. The Economic Impacts of Climate Change: Richard S J Tol, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1 February 2018, Pages 4–25, https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/rex027: This article focuses on aggregate indicators of the effects of climate change on total economic welfare and on the distribution of those welfare impacts. The author argues that …