ABSTRACT
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is increasingly interested in determining the monetized benefits of their restoration activities. In many cases, an economic analysis, usually in the form of a benefit-cost analysis, is required for proposed regulations. In 1993, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12866 on Regulatory Planning and Review (58 Federal Register 51735, October 4, 1993) that required agencies to perform a benefit-cost analysis if the regulatory actions met several criteria, including having an annual impact on the economy of $100 million. Even when it is not required, an economic analysis can provide a useful framework for integrating the expected public health, ecological, and other types of impacts of policies or restoration alternatives into a single overall measure and presenting those impacts in terms easily understood by decision makers and the public.
