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MULTIPLE BENEFITS OF GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTIONS IN WISCONSIN
Citation:
Impact/Purpose:
Estimate changes in adverse human health effects, and their associated costs, due to improvements in exposure to particulate matter from power plants emissions which can be attributable to implementation of the Wisconsin Climate Change Action Plan.
Description:
Develop forecasts of ambient air quality for a business-as-usual "baseline" scenario for 2007 using the best available emissions predictions and air quality modeling programs. We estimate the ambient air quality under the Climate Change Action Plan Policy scenario for 2007 (referred to as the "policy scenario" from here on). We estimate the policy scenario's air quality by using an existing study of the proportion of predicted 2007 PM levels that will be caused by SO2 and NOx emissions from power plants. We use the proportion of power plant SO2 and NOx emissions reduced by the Climate Change Action Plan to estimate the resulting air quality in 2007. We use the Criteria Air Pollutant Modeling System (CAPMS) to estimate the health impacts associated with the changes in PM concentrations from implementation of the Climate Change Action Plan. CAPMS is a a population-based model developed by Abt Associates that calculates the number of avoidable health effects associated with changes in air pollution levels.