This Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) presents the health and welfare benefits and the costs of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) and compares the benefits to the costs of implementing CAIR in 2010 and 2015. EPA has estimated the benefits and costs of the Clean Air Interstate Rule and finds that the rule results in estimated annual net benefits of $71.4 or $60.4 in 2010 and $98.5 or $83.2 billion in 2015. These alternate net benefit estimates reflect differing assumptions about the social discount rate used to estimate the social benefits and costs of the rule. The lower estimates reflect a discount rate of 7 percent and the higher estimates a discount rate of 3 percent. In 2015, the total annual quantified benefits are $101 or $86.3 billion and the annual social costs are $2.6 or $3.1 billionbenefits outweigh social costs in 2015 by a ratio of 39 to 1 or 28 to 1 (3 percent and 7 percent discount rates respectively). An alternative comparison of the annual benefits of the rule to the estimated private costs to the electric generating industry in 2015 result in benefits outweighing costs by a ratio of 25 to 1 (benefits of $101 billion compared to costs of $3.6 billion). These estimates do not include the value of benefits or costs that we cannot monetize. Upon consideration of the uncertainties and limitations in the analysis, it remains clear that the benefits of CAIR are substantial and far outweigh the costs.

Project Officer: Linda Chappell. "March 2005." "EPA-452/R-05-002." Includes bibliographical references.