A report subjects the proposal to expand coalbed methane (CBM) extraction in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana to qualitative precautionary economic analysis. The outcomes of this analysis must be incorporated in action that upholds the public trust and assures ultimate gains to the public welfare. Rigorous, well-intentioned economic analysis has two main strengths but also, unfortunately, a key weakness. The first strength is the notion of social benefits and costs, or net change in total public welfare. Economic analysis provides a sense of the sum of benefits to society less the sum of costs to society.
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