Capital Intensiveness of Air Pollution Control

摘要

The results of a linear programming model for air pollution control in the St. Louis airshed indicate that the least cost solution is capital intensive. It is estimated that S190 mil¬lion in capital equipment will be required to achieve a specific set of annual air quality goals for the airshed in 1975. Cer¬tain limitations in the model, such as the lack of constraints or shadow costs on solid and liquid wastes resulting from air pollution abatement make this estimate tentative.nThe economic burden of pollution control is the value of resources allocated to abatement. It is observed that the largest component of this annual cost of control may be the opportunity cost of capital.