a) The Indenture Act passed by the state government in 1964 allows Kimberly-Clark pulp mills to discharge wastewater into drains that flow into Lake Bonney with impunity. Explain why this is unlikely to achieve an efficient outcome for the use of the lake as a resource.
b) During 2008–09, the EPA introduced a new licence fee system based on a ‘polluter pays’ principle. One component of the new fee structure is the resource efficiency fee that comprises a load-based fee for the discharge of pollutants in sensitive areas. How would this fee impact on Kimberly-Clark and the level of harmful waste it discharges from its mills into Lake Bonney?
c) An alternative approach to a charge on the level of waste is to use a Pigouvian tax on the pulp produced by the Kimberly-Clark mills. How would a tax on the paper pulp produced by the mills achieve an efficient outcome?
d) The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is the branch of government responsible for monitoring and regulating the health of the lake. Explain why this is service of 'monitoring and regulating' is provided by the government and not left entirely to the private sector. With government provision will the community necessarily get an efficient level of this service supplied?
This assignment should be done as a group consisting of up to four people. Although it is not compulsory, if you submit the assignment the mark will count; it is not redeemable.
The limit is 1,500 words, double-spaced typing, plus diagrams and graphs.
Assignments must be submitted as a word document by only one member of the group with the name of the document being the email name of the person submitting.
The due date is 8:00 pm on Monday 17th May.#p#分页标题#e#
This assignment is worth 20 percent of the final grade.
For equity reasons, the tutors will not discuss questions on subjects relating to the assignment topic. If you have difficulty understanding the material or interpreting the question you can discuss this in the course discussion board on MyUni.
Mark scheme and assessment criteria.
The assignment will be marked out of 25. The structure of your assignment answer has been determined, in the main, by the sequence of questions that has been set. Each part of the assignment will be marked out of 5 based on the assessment criteria given in the table below. There will be a further 5 marks for organisation.
ASSESSMENT - ASSIGNMENTS