Abstract
Although oil spills from tanker accidents receive the most publicity, most vessel spills are not the result of accidents but of oil transfer activities. We investigate determinants of the size of vessel oil transfer spills as well as the effectiveness of Coast Guard enforcement activities in reducing their size. Vessel out-of-water and in-water oil transfer spillage functions are estimated utilizing tobit regression and detailed data on individual vessel oil transfer spills as well as Coast Guard safety/environmental enforcement activity data for the 1991–1995 period. Our estimation results suggest that Coast Guard hull but not machinery inspections are effective in reducing both out-of-water and in-water spills; patrols by air, but not by boat, are effective in reducing out-of-water spills; but neither is effective in reducing in-water spills. The results also show that the type of vessel (oil- and non-oil-cargo), vessel characteristics, vessel operations, weather/visibility conditions, and waterway type are determinants of post OPA-90 vessel oil transfer spills.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
E. E. Anderson W. K. Talley (1995) ArticleTitle‘The Oil Spill Size of Tanker and Barge Accidents: Determinants and Policy Implications’ Land Economics 71 216–228
R. S. Brown I. Savage (1996) ArticleTitle‘The Economics of Double-Hulled Tankers’ Maritime Policy and Management 23 167–175
M. J. Cohen (1995) ArticleTitle‘Technological Disasters and Natural Resource Damage Assessment: An Evaluation of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill’ Land Economics 71 5–82
M. A. Cohen (1987) ArticleTitle‘Optimal Enforcement Strategy to Prevent Oil Spills: An Application of a Principal- Agent Model with Moral Hazard’ Journal of Law and Economics 30 23–51
M. L. Cropper W. N. Evans S. J. Berardi M. M. Ducla-Soares P. R. Portney (1992) ArticleTitle‘The Determinants of Pesticide Regulation: A Statistical Analysis of EPA Decision Making’ Journal of Political Economy 100 IssueID1 175–197
D. Epple M. Visscher (1984) ArticleTitle‘Environmental Pollution: Modeling Occurrence, Detection, and Deterrence’ Journal of Law and Economics 27 29–60
Gracey, J. S. (1985),‘Many Question Value of Drive for Vessel Safety Standards’, Journal of Commerce, May, p. 10C.
M. V. Grau T. Groves (1997) ArticleTitle‘The Oil Spill Process: The Effect of Coast Guard Monitoring on Oil Spills’ Environmental and Resource Economics 10 315–339
T. D. Hopkins (1992) ArticleTitle‘Oil Spill Reduction and Costs of Ship Design Regulation’ Contemporary Policy Issues 10 59–70 Occurrence Handle10.1111/j.1465-7287.1992.tb00236.x
International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), 2002. Oil Tanker Spill Statistics (http://www.itopf.com).
D. Jin H. L. Kite-Powell J. M. Broadus (1994) ArticleTitle‘Dynamic Economic Analysis of Marine Pollution Prevention Technologies: An Application to Double Hulls and Electronic Charts’ Environmental and Resource Economics 4 555–580
D. Jin H. L. Kite-Powell (1999) ArticleTitle‘On the Optimal Environmental Liability Limit for Marine Oil Transport’ Transportation Research Part E 35 IssueID2 77–100
I. Kim (2002) ArticleTitle‘Ten Years after the Enactment of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990: A Success or a Failure’ Marine Policy 26 197–207
J. F. McDonald R. A. Moffitt (1980) ArticleTitle‘The Uses of Tobit Analysis’ Review of Economics and Statistics 62 318–321
J. Sharit S. J. Czaja E. lakovou J. Moses (2000) ArticleTitle‘A Human Factors Systems Approach to Examining Oil Spills in Tankbarge Operations: Analysis and Reappraisal of Management Policies’ Maritime Policy and Management 27 IssueID1 41–52
S. Shavell (1987) Economic Analysis of Accident Law Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts
W. K. Talley (1999) ArticleTitle‘Determinants of the Property Damage Costs of Tanker Accidents’ Transportation Research Part D 4 413–426
W. K. Talley (2000) ArticleTitle‘Oil Spillage and Damage Costs: U.S. Inland Waterway Tank Barge Accidents’ International Journal of Maritime Economics 2 217–234
W. K. Talley D. Jin H. Kite-Powell (2001) ArticleTitle‘Vessel Accident Oil-Spillage: Post US OPA-90’ Transportation Research Part D 6 405–415
US Coast Guard (2002), Pollution Incident Compendium (http://www.uscg.mil/hq/gm/nmc/response/stats/summary.html).
White, I. C. and J. M. Baker (1998), ‘The Sea Empress Oil Spill in Context’, A Paper Presented at the International Conference on the Sea Empress Oil Spill, Cardiff, Wales.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Talley, W.K., Jin, D. & Kite-Powell, H. Post OPA-90 Vessel Oil Transfer Spill Prevention: The Effectiveness of Coast Guard Enforcement. Environ Resource Econ 30, 93–114 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-004-2378-2
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-004-2378-2