Environment, Energy, and Agriculture

Who Will Pay for Seabrook?

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

In the fall of 1987, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission faced an electric rate decision with far-reaching consequences. Ostensibly, the commission had only to decide whether to grant an emergency 15 percent rate increase to the...

High Mountain Sheep Dam (Abridged)

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

This case examines the decision facing the Federal Power Commission (FPC) of whether to license hydroelectric development of Idaho's Snake River. After providing background on the area's wilderness value and on the FPC, it describes a series of...

Plastic in the Public Sector

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

This five-paragraph case sketches a debate in the state of Minnesota about whether to allow to pay for their annual $15 park permits by credit card. The debate took place in the context of a larger Department of Natural Resources effort to...

Cancer and Environmental Hazards in Woburn, Massachusetts (A)

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

During excavation for an industrial park, hazardous wastes, including known carcinogens, are discovered in Woburn, Massachusetts. At the same time, two town wells are taken out of service because of chemical contamination. A local minister...

Cancer and Environmental Hazards in Woburn, Massachusetts (B: Sequel)

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

During excavation for an industrial park, hazardous wastes, including known carcinogens, are discovered in Woburn, Massachusetts. At the same time, two town wells are taken out of service because of chemical contamination. A local minister...

Cancer and Environmental Hazards in Woburn, Massachusetts (B): The Second Study

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

During excavation for an industrial park, hazardous wastes, including known carcinogens, are discovered in Woburn, Massachusetts. At the same time, two town wells are taken out of service because of chemical contamination. A local minister...

Ruckelshaus and Acid Rain

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

After being publicly charged by President Reagan to meet the problem of acid rain "head-on," the new EPA administrator spent much of his first six months in office tackling the issue. This case examines the political and management strategies he...

California Water Pricing

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

In many parts of California, water districts set prices so that agricultural users pay far less than residential users and far less than the true cost of water. While the adoption of a marginal cost pricing system would bring enormous efficiency...

Saving the Tuolumne (Sequel)

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

In April 1983, the City and County of San Francisco and two irrigation districts in Merced and Stanislaus counties commissioned a feasibility study of their long-standing proposal to dam the Tuolumne River for power and water. At the same time,...

Saving the Tuolumne

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

In April 1983, the City and County of San Francisco and two irrigation districts in Merced and Stanislaus counties commissioned a feasibility study of their long-standing proposal to dam the Tuolumne River for power and water. At the same time,...

Controlling Acid Rain, 1986

Publication Date: January 01, 1986

This case is designed to support a discussion of how to apply an economic evaluation of the appropriate level of control of an externality to a real problem with incomplete information of uncertain quality and high political stakes. It sketches...

Shrinking the Policy Process: The Press and the 1980 Love Canal Relocation

Publication Date: January 01, 1985

This case tells the story of the decision of the Carter administration to relocate 710 families from the area in and around an abandoned canal that had been used as a dumping ground for toxic wastes in the 1940s and 1950s. It focuses on the...