Nitrogen Oxide
With new technologies introduced into our society in the past hundred years such as motor vehicles and electric utilities, many pollutants are put into the air. One of these pollutants is Nitrogen oxide. Nitrogen oxide, or NOx, is a group of highly reactive gases, all of which contain nitrogen and oxygen. These gases form when fuel is burned at high temperatures. These gases react in the presence of sunlight and can be carried hundreds of miles from their origins, causing air pollution over wide regions. In 1997, over 23 million tons of nitrogen oxides were emitted into the air in the United States. This is an obvious problem in our society that causes acid rain, smog, global warming, and water quality deterioration. In this paper we are going to discuss the main reason for the high level of NOx and the ways society and government can do to help lower the level of NOx in the air. The main reason we have an inefficient level of nitrogen oxide is because of the increase use of cars and electric utilities. The Environmental Protection Agency says, "Emission reductions from electric utilities and other large boilers would be the most cost effective in terms of dollars spent per ton of NOx reduced." With the large amount
Obliviously, it will be impossible to remove all of the NOx in the air today, but hopefully with improving technology and peoples' better understanding of nitrogen oxide effects, we can help reduce NOx. Pollution taxes are different than command and control in that they do not define certain behaviors as legal or illegal and specifying penalties for engaging in illegal behavior. Third, if the regulation is worded poorly, then firms can find ways to go around the law and not reduce their pollution at all. But, under certain conditions, pollution taxes are less desirable than command and control because techniques in achieving the correct level of NOx. This means that firms can trade permits to other firms. For some pollution, the geographic location can have a big effect on the damages the pollution generates. A good example of this is "in the past 10 years NOx emissions from the highway vehicles decreased by more than 5 percent, while vehicles miles traveled increased significantly. Secondly, the regulation may not be fair to all firms. First, Command and control can have high monitoring costs such as making sure every car or coal-burning utilities have catalytic converter or scrubbers. One firm may think it does not need to have scrubbers. Pollution taxing is done to make individual self-interest coincide with the social interest. Acid rain is formed when NOx and sulfur dioxide react with other substances to form acids that fall to the earth as rain, snow, fog, or dry particles. Along with new technology, individuals can do their part in reducing NOx in the air. Even though command and control may seem to be right there are disadvantages that cause command and control to fail.
Common topics in this essay:
Taxing Pollution,
Agency Emission,
,
NOx NOx,
command control,
nox air,
acid rain,
level pollution,
reduce nox,
level nox,
pollution taxes,
permits firms,
target level,
target level pollution,
nitrogen oxide,
nuclear power hydropower,
water quality deterioration,
marketable permits pollution,
pollution tax tax,
|
Acceptance Essays
