ABSTRACT
Natural resource damage liability has changed the rules for those involved in activities that could (or did) result in releases of hazardous substances and oil. The collective description of the background, implementation, uniqueness, and measurement of this liability should now be clearer than it was at the beginning of our discussion. We believe that the effects of such liability on the direction of research in resource and environmental economics (and very likely on future policies) will be important. At our conference in June of 1988, two elements of natural resource damage liability were singled out for special attention. Since then, both court rulings and changes in the Department of the Interior rules have reinforced our decision that these elements—the role of time (especially discounting) and the definition and measurement of nonuse values—warranted special attention. They are discussed in the next two chapters.
