Accounting for Subsoil Mineral Resources

摘要

Last summer, a blue-ribbon panel of the national academy of sciences' national research council completed a congressionally mandated review of the work that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) had published on integrated economic and environmental accounts. The panel's final report commended BEA for its initial work in producing a set of sound and objective prototype accounts. The November 1999 issue of the SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS contained an article by william D.Nordhaus, the Chair of the Panel, that presented an overview of the major issues and finding and a reprint of chapter 5, "Overall Appraisal of Environmentl Accounting in the United States", from the final report. As part of its promise to inform users of the results of this evaluation, BEA is reprinting additional chapter from t he panel's report; below is a reprint of chapter 3, which reviews BEA's development of a set of subsoil mineral accounts. This article is reprinted with permission from Nature's Numbers:Expanding the National Economic Accounts to Include the Environemnt. Copyright of the National Academy Press, Washington. DC. This is a report of the National Researc Council, prepared by the Panel on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting and edited by William D.Nordhaus and Edward C.Kokkenlenberg.