The Evolution of the “Waters of the United States” and the Role of Economics

IF 7.8 3区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Review of Environmental Economics and Policy Pub Date : 2022-01-01 DOI:10.1086/717917

David A Keiser, Sheila M. Olmstead, K. Boyle, V. Flatt, B. Keeler, D. Phaneuf, Joseph S. Shapiro, J. Shimshack

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

For nearly 50 years, the Clean Water Act (CWA) has served as the main environmental statute that regulates water quality in the United States. Yet the jurisdictional limits of the act, in terms of which waters are regulated, remain unresolved. This article reviews the complicated history of these waters of the United States (WOTUS) and discusses the important role of economics in understanding the benefits and costs of a narrow versus a broad definition of WOTUS. During the Obama and Trump administrations, several economic analyses arrived at different conclusions regarding whether to expand or reduce CWA protections. We examine the key components of these analyses, including a novel federalism analysis used to support deregulation of US waterways. In this analysis, the Trump administration assumed that states would fill regulatory gaps left by the federal government. We conclude with some thoughts about key issues for the Biden administration to consider as it develops its own definition of WOTUS as well as research priorities for economists seeking to inform the debate about WOTUS.

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“美国水域”的演变与经济学的作用

近50年来，《清洁水法》一直是美国规范水质的主要环境法规。然而，该法案的管辖范围，即水域的监管范围，仍未得到解决。本文回顾了美国这些水域（WOTUS）的复杂历史，并讨论了经济学在理解狭义和广义WOTUS的收益和成本方面的重要作用。在奥巴马和特朗普政府期间，几项经济分析得出了关于是扩大还是减少《化学武器公约》保护的不同结论。我们研究了这些分析的关键组成部分，包括一项新的联邦制分析，用于支持放松对美国水道的管制。在这项分析中，特朗普政府认为各州将填补联邦政府留下的监管空白。最后，我们对拜登政府在制定自己的WOTUS定义时需要考虑的关键问题进行了一些思考，并为寻求为WOTUS辩论提供信息的经济学家提供了研究重点。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Review of Environmental Economics and Policy Multiple-

CiteScore

10.80

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Review of Environmental Economics and Policy fills the gap between traditional academic journals and the general interest press by providing a widely accessible yet scholarly source for the latest thinking on environmental economics and related policy. The Review publishes symposia, articles, and regular features that contribute to one or more of the following goals: •to identify and synthesize lessons learned from recent and ongoing environmental economics research; •to provide economic analysis of environmental policy issues; •to promote the sharing of ideas and perspectives among the various sub-fields of environmental economics;