Market Based Approaches to Environmental Preservation: To Environmental Mitigation Fees and Beyond

Abstract:     
Impact fees are widely accepted and utilized across the United States as a technique to generate revenue for capital infrastructure improvements necessitated by new development. This article looks at the origination of impact fees, their legal framework, the extension of the concept towards environmental protection, and an alternative economic approach in environmental protection, market based regulation. Based upon techniques utilized primarily in the arenas of wetlands and air quality regulation, a concept of utilizing economic incentives for broader environmental protection is explored. Considerations of the legal framework evolved through impacts fees are then applied to possible implementation aspects of the concept.

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