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In this paper we analyze the economic effects of implementing EPA’s newly proposed regulations for carbon dioxide (CO2) on existing U.S. coal-fired power plants using nonparametric methods on a sample of 144 electricity generating units. Moreover, we develop an approach for evaluating the economic gains from averaging emission intensities among the utilities’ generating units, compared to implementing unit-specific performance standards. Our results show that the implementation of flexible standards leads to up to 2.7 billion dollars larger profits compared to the uniform standards. Moreover, we find that by adopting best practices, current profits can be maintained even if an intensity standard of 0.88 tons of CO2 per MWh is implemented. However, our results also indicate a trade-off between environmental and profit gains, since aggregate CO2 emissions are higher with emission intensity averaging than with uniform standards.

An important question in forecasting air traffic at airports is: How does the future traffic volume compare with capacity? We concentrate in this paper on air transport movements (ATMs) and runway capacity, since in many instances runways form the most critical airport component for expansion, due to environmental constraints. Air traffic forecasts like those of aircraft manufacturers typically yield annual volumes, whereas capacities are correctly measured in short time periods, i.e. hours. In answering the question of the conformity of demand (in this case ATMs) with capacity, future annual volumes have to be converted into peak hour volumes and then compared with capacity. The paper discusses the problem of selecting a suitable peak hour and informs on the annual capacity utilisation of airports worldwide in the form of “traffic ranking curves”. Functional relationships between peak hour and annual ATM volumes have been derived for each type of airport capacity.