Economic-Environmental-Energy Interactions

This publication is concerned with two major current debates in public policy in all affluent societies. One is the widespread concern with the quality of the natural environment-the quality of air, water, land, and wilderness areas-which has expressed itself in the passage and implementation in recent years of a variety of environmental laws and regulations. A second debate concerns the adequacy of energy resources to meet the requirements of a growing economy. The requirement that industries must abate environmental pollution leads to increased costs of production and, in turn, to higher prices, falling output in those industries, and reduced employment and income in the region where such industries are located. There may be, at the same time, growth in indus- tries that supply pollution abatement equipment and services in those or other regions. Over time, the health and economic benefits of higher envi- ronmental quality express themselves in changing patterns of consumption.