New Approaches on Energy and the Environment

Introduction

By Richard D. Morgenstern and Paul R. Portney

Environmental protection has brought huge benefits to the United States. The country’s air and water are cleaner than they were a generation ago. Hazardous wastes are better managed. Land once poisoned by toxic dumps is being reclaimed. These achievements, combined with continuing efforts to preserve and enhance natural resources, contribute daily to Americans’ health and their improving quality of life.

But these successes have not come cheaply. The country is now spending in the neighborhood of 2 percent of its GDP—more than $200 billion a year—in predominantly private funds to meet the standards that it has set. Although numerous studies find that, in the aggregate, the benefits of ...