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Internet data
traffic now exceeds telephone voice traffic in volume.
This shift is bringing new policy issues to the forefront.
One
such issue was pushed to center stage in the AT&T
versus Portland lawsuit. When a Bell telephone company
offers broadband services, the company must allow competitors
to provide services over its infrastructure. When a cable
company offers a comparable service, it does not face
similar obligations. There is considerable debate as to
what the current law requires, and what the law should
require. An important bill on this topic came from the
House Commerce Committee. The topic was also of great
concern in the Senate, particularly for Senator Wyden
who represents Portland.
Internet
domain names: In the early days of the Internet, a
few engineers handed out "domain names," such
as cmu.edu. As the task became more onerous, the US Government
hired a company called Network Solutions to manage these
domain names. Now that the Internet has become a major
marketplace, the number of domain names to manage (at
a profit) are increasing rapidly, and commercial names
like porsche.com are valuable properties. Network Solutions
inherited monopoly control over all domain names ending
with .com, .org, and .net, under some supervision from
the US Government. The US Commerce Department is now in
the process of transferring some control to a non-profit
organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The
process has been highly controversial. The House Commerce
Committee has oversight responsibility over the US Commerce
Department. A hearing was called by the majority entitled
"Is ICANN Out of Control?" I worked on this
issue for the minority. We pushed to transform the hearing
into a balanced exploration of issues surrounding both
ICANN and Network Solutions. This controversial hearing
fundamentally changed the debate. House Commerce Committee
staff continued close oversight after the hearing.
Electronic
signatures: Encryption technology can transform a
datafile to incorporate the identity of the author. Thus,
it is possible to apply an "electronic signature"
to an electronic document that is comparable to a written
signature on a paper document. This makes it possible
to conduct business over the Internet that otherwise could
only be done in a timely manner in person. However, policy
has not kept pace with technology.
I
first worked on these issues on behalf of Commerce Committee
Democrats in the House. Three House members introduced
bills. I dealt with the issue again in the Senate, where
discussion focused on the Abraham-Wyden bill. Since it
is far easier to stop legislation than to pass legislation,
especially when one is in the minority party, the challenge
was to develop a bill that could gain broad support. Organizations
wanting strong consumer protection had very different
opinions from those that represented electronic commerce
companies, or those representing financial services firms.
Moreover, there were fundamental differences in opinion
on the extent to which federal law should preempt state
law. After many months of intense negotiation, a bill
was crafted that could pass.
Satellite
television: One of the more celebrated controversies
before Congress in 1999 involved satellite television.
This issue was driven by both short-term and long-term
concerns. The short-term concern was that millions of
angry viewers were losing their television. The law only
allowed satellite television carriers to deliver network
stations to
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FERET:
The Fast Environmental Regulatory Evaluation Tool
Developing
and commenting on environmental regulation is serious business.
One of the key tools in this work is benefit-cost analysis.
Scott Farrow (EPP) and his colleagues are building a software
system to raise the quality of such analysis while making
it faster and cheaper. In addition to enthusiastic support,
their demonstrations to government and academia have evoked
remarks such as: "It will raise the quality bar too
high" and "You'll be putting a machine gun in
the hands of children."
The
Fast Environmental Regulatory Evaluation Tool (FERET) is
a joint project of the Center for the Study and Improvement
of Regulation which involves investigations on EPP and the
School of Public Health at the University of Washington.
The federal government requires impact and benefit-cost
analyses for major regulations as do numerous states. There
are frequently few personnel, little money, and less time
to do the analyses. Large companies are also implementing
environmental management plans that could include impact
or economic valuation. FERET provides a common analytical
platform, bibliographies, flexibility, and simulation capabilities.
When users select health and economic studies from the bibliography
they essentially perform a meta analysis of the studies
selected. The output includes distributions of health impacts,
dollar benefits, and costs. The current version focuses
on criteria air pollutants and health impacts although extensions
are under discussion.
So,
does FERET raise the bar impossibly high or put a dangerous
tool in the hands of the public? The answer is still coming
in from field tests of the beta version in states and companies.
Industry Reporting
of Pollution Emissions in China
In
the 1980s, China instituted a nationwide system of mandatory
reporting for air pollution emissions from industry. These
data are used for national and regional planning, setting
emissions permit levels, and enforcement of the national
pollution levy. Because emissions reports from industrial
enterprises are used in part to levy pollution fees against
the enterprises themselves, there are obvious incentives
for under-reporting. To examine this potential problem,
EPP faculty member Keith Florig (EPP Ph.D. 1986) and Dr.
Song Guojun of the Institute for Environmental Economics
at Renmin University are evaluating emissions reporting
data from 230 industrial enterprises in a city in Northeast
China. The data includes emissions estimates for 870 boilers,
kilns, and furnaces. Florig and Song are comparing reported
emissions per ton of coal burned against both Chinese and
US EPA norms for a given type of point source. The analysis
shows good compliance with the letter of the reporting regulations.
Although some emissions are indeed underreported, these
underreports are more the result of ambiguities and oversights
in reporting requirements than the result of efforts to
avoid pollution fees. For example, dozen largest boilers
in the city all have electrostatic precipitators that are
partially or completely out of service about 30% of the
time. Reporting regulations do not require that emissions
estimates account for this downtime, resulting in nameplate
removal efficiencies being used for all boiler operations.
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