RCRA Basics

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• Cost Benefit Analysis and Ecology

• Valuing environmental benefits
• Market Value
• Travel cost/shadow prices
• Contingent Valuation/wtp problem
• Can CBA accommodate the precautionary principle?
  How does CBA account for future costs?

2
Back to values David Broder (1990) "The
argument is no longer about values. Thats over
and the environmentalists have won. The argument
is now about policies. And those with the best
evidence and the best arguments, not just the
purest hearts, will prevail. Do you agree?
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Private Law/Torts
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Private Law/Torts
Private plaintiff(s) vs. private defendants

• Theories of liability
• private nuisance
• public nuisance
• trespass
• negligence
• negligence per se
• strict liability

Coordination, or free rider problems
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Madison v. Ducktown Sulphur (TN, 1901)
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• Madison v. Ducktown Sulphur (TN, 1901)
• smoke pollution from smelter ? ruining timber and
  farming land in Appalachia
• private nuisance action
• Should court grant injunction? Damages?

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• Madison v. Ducktown Sulphur (TN, 1901)
• smoke pollution from smelter ? ruining timber and
  farming land in Appalachia
• private nuisance action
• Should court grant injunction? Damages?
• What factors matter? Who was there first?
  Relative benefits of competing land uses?

Shall we grant plaintiffs request to blot
out two great mining and manufacturing
enterprises, destroy half of the taxable values
of a county, and drive more than 10,000 people
from their homes?
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• Tennessee Copper (USSC, 1907)
• same smelter, same damage

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• Tennessee Copper (USSC, 1907)
• same smelter, same damage
• public nuisance
• Should court grant injunction?
• No damages requestedwhy?
• Should states have superior rights to private
  individuals in this situation?

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Missouri v. Illinois (USSC, 1906)
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• Missouri v. Illinois (USSC, 1906)
• Chicago pollution polluting Lake Michigan
• City reversed rivers flow ? Illinois River ?
  Mississippi River ? typhoid in St. Louis
• No. of typhoid cases increased after flow
  reversed. Is Missouri entitled to injunction?

12

• Missouri v. Illinois (USSC, 1906)
• Chicago pollution polluting Lake Michigan
• City reversed rivers flow ? Illinois River ?
  Mississippi River ? typhoid in St. Louis
• No. of typhoid cases increased after flow
  reversed. Is Missouri entitled to injunction?
• Missouri permits upstream Missouri towns to
  discharge raw sewage. Does that matter to the
  court? Should it matter?

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Spread of Environmental Values, post WWII WHY?

• industrialization ? pollution?
• developments in science of ecology?
• liberal social movements
• broadening prosperity?
• leisure goods
• post-materialism hypothesis
• US vs. other industrialized democracies

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RISE OF PUBLIC LAW 1. Catalyzing Events Silent
Spring ? FIFRA Scenic Hudson ? NEPA Cayuhoga
River fire Santa Barbara oil spill ? CWA
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RISE OF PUBLIC LAW 1. Catalyzing Events 2.
Federalization Common ? State regulation
? federal law regulation
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RISE OF PUBLIC LAW 1. Catalyzing Events 2.
Federalization 3. Politics Industry vs.
environmentalists Left vs. right STATUTES
TIMELINE.doc
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NEXT TIME Property rights and the limits of
regulation