Air Pollution and the Siting of Fossil Fuel Power Plants. (Environmental Pollutants and the Urban Economy),

摘要

This paper presents an analysis of the total social cost,and the trade-offs between generation/transmission and air pollution costs,for various types of fossil plants at different sites in Northern Illinois. The analysis identifies the combinations of site,fossil fuel,and sulfur dioxide (SO2) control technology that minimize total social costs. Four decision variables were used in the analysis:site,stack height,boiler fuel,and sulfur dioxide emission control method. Results indicate that appropriate horizontal and vertical displacement of power plant emissions can minimize the local social costs of power generation and transmission in the Northern Illinois area. Also the environmental damage differential between alternative power plant sites in rural areas is a small percentage (less than 6%) of the total social costs of generating electricity. Forcing power plants to locate more than 60miles from Chicago in order to reduce air pollution damages would not be an economically desirable air pollution/land use policy,since the added transmission costs would exceed any pollution damage savings.