Economic and Other Impacts

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.

Unless otherwise noted, the data presented throughout this Web site reflect EPA’s 2003 modeling and analysis of the Clear Skies Act of 2003. Clear Skies legislation was intended to create a mandatory program that would dramatically reduce power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and mercury by setting a national cap on each pollutant. The Clear Skies bill was proposed in response to a growing need for an emission reduction plan that will protect human health and the environment while providing regulatory certainty to the industry. The proposed legislation for air regulation never moved out of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee in 2005 and was therefore never enacted.

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Related Information

Updated Financial Impact Analysis of a Multipollutant Emissions Policy (PDF, 39pp., 548KB)

Economic Efficiency and Distributional Consequences of Different Approaches to NOx and SO2 Allowance Allocation (PDF, 77pp., 718KB)

Engineering and Economic Factors Affecting the Installation of Control Technologies for Multipollutant Strategies (PDF, 85pp., 2.4MB)

Using a variety of models and other analytical tools, EPA has evaluated the compliance costs and related impacts of the emissions caps on affected sources.

The annual compliance costs are projected to be approximately $3.69 billion in 2010 and $6.49 billion in 2020. Related impacts -- including detailed information on pollution control retrofits, factors affecting the installation of controls, marginal costs, electricity prices, average emissions rates, generation, fuel use, and coal production -- are described in the files below.

2003 Technical Support Package for Clear Skies:

Introduction, Table of Contents, Notes on the 2003 Analysis (PDF, 10 pp., 94KB)
Section A: 2003 Program Elements in the Clear Skies Act (PDF, 7 pp., 396KB)
Section B: 2003 Human Health and Environmental Benefits (PDF, 49 pp., 4.7MB)
Section C: 2003 Projected Costs (PDF, 5 pp., 210KB)
Section D: 2003 Projected Impacts on Generation and Fuel Use (PDF, 12 pp., 687KB)
Section E: 2003 Projected Impacts at the State and Regional Level (PDF, 26 pp., 3.4MB)
Section F: 2003 Allocations (PDF, 7 pp., 100KB)
Section G: 2003 Factors Affecting the Installation of Control Technologies (PDF, 11 pp., 35KB)
Section H: 2003 Summary of the Models Used for this Analysis (PDF, 7 pp., 23KB)

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Economic and Other Impacts

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