ABSTRACT
This report began by noting some of the controversies surrounding the use of economic methods to evaluate the benefits and costs of new environmental regulations, including the concern by some about the excessive focus on economic efficiency criteria, the limited ability to quantify health and environmental damages, and quite fundamental questions about the monetization of these effects. While recognizing the importance of these issues, we have deliberately placed some of the broader questions beyond the reach of this volume, and have chosen instead to focus on what we believe to be the most tractable question, namely the development and use of regulatory impact analyses (RIAS) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A key goal of an RIA should be to help inform regulators, Congress, and the general public about the expected consequences— both the benefits and the costs—of pending decisions.
