Benefits of air pollution control in California. Volume 2. Final report

The objective of the study was to estimate the economic benefit of controlling air-pollution emissions in California. The focus of the study was to use the best available literature, data, methods, and judgement to estimate as accurately as possible the economic benefits of emission control. The study is restricted to the San Diego, South Coast, San Joaquin, and San Francisco Air Basins of California. The study comprises five alternative emission-control scenarios. For each of these scenarios, pollutant emissions, ambient air quality, air pollution impacts, and economic measures of the impacts are estimated and compared. The study encompasses pollution impacts to human health, agriculture, materials, forests, and visibility. The control scenarios include particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, lead, and reactive organic gas-emission estimates. One of the study scenario comparisons, compares actual conditions in 1979 to estimates of conditions in 1979 with 1960 level emission controls. The estimate of the economic benefit of this scenario is $11.9 billion per year.