Page 99 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution

IV. Alternative Control Strategies 69

This is the strategy in use in the United States. The second principal strategy
is the emission standard strategy, also known as the best practicable means of
control approach. In this strategy, neither air quality criteria nor ambient
air quality standards are developed and promulgated. Either an emission
standard is developed and promulgated or an emission limit on sources is
determined on a case-by-case basis, representing the best practicable means
for controlling emissions from those sources. This is the strategy in use in
Great Britain. A third strategy controls pollution by adopting financial
incentives (Table 5-3). This is usually but not necessarily in addition to
the promulgation of air quality standards. Among the countries that have
adopted tax, fee, or fine schedules on a national basis are Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Japan, The Netherlands, and Norway. There is additional discus-
sion of this strategy in Chapter 27, Section III. A fourth strategy seeks to

TABLE 5-3
Financial Incentives to Supplement or Replace Regulation
Taxes
Sales taxes On fuel, fuel additives, ingredients in fuel, pollution-
producing equipment
Ultimate disposal taxes On automobiles or other objects requiring ultimate disposal
Land use taxes For pollution-producing activities
Tax remission
Corporate income tax For investment in or operation of pollution control
equipment; accelerated write-off of pollution control
equipment
Property taxes For pollution control equipment
Fines, effluent charges, and
fees
Fines For violation of regulations
Effluent charges For permission to emit excessive quantities of pollution;
paid after emission
Fees For permission to emit excessive quantities of pollution,
paid before emission
Subsidies
Direct Governmental production (e.g., nuclear fuel)
Grants-in-aid For pollution control installations
Indirect (low-interest bonds For pollution-control process or equipment development
and loans)
Import restraints
Duties and quotas On materials, fuels, and pollution control-producing
apparatus
Domestic production restraints
Quotas, land and offshore On material and fuels
use restraints
Source: From Stern, A. C., Heath, M. S., and Hufschmidt, M. M., A critical review of the
role of fiscal policies and taxation in air pollution control, Proceedings of the Third International
Clean Air Congress, Verein Deutscher Ingeniuere, Dusseldorf, pp. D-10-12, 1974.