For 20 years the debate about clean air regulation has centered on acid rain and the controversy about acid rain in the Adirondack Park, which covers some six million acres in New York State. But until now policymakers have never had an estimate of the economic value of improvements to the park to New York State residents. Our five-year study quantifies the change in total economic value (the sum of use and nonuse value) that would result from an improvement in the ecological attributes of the Adirondack Park that could be expected to follow from policies currently under consideration, such as Clear Skies. To obtain these estimates a contingent valuation survey was administered to a random sample of New York State residents through the Internet, Web TV, and mail.

Our preferred estimates of the mean willingness to pay (WTP) using the base case characterization of ecological improvements range from $48 to $107 per year per household in New York State. The alternative scope case scenario yields mean WTP ranging from $54 to $159 per year per household. Multiplying these population-weighted estimates by the approximate number of households in the state yields benefits ranging from about $336 million to $1.1 billion per year. The instrument passes an external scope test and a test of sensitivity to bid, both of which are important measures of validity for stated preference studies.

The results of this study help complete the two-decade-long project of integrated assessment across natural and social sciences, resulting in economic estimates that can be used to guide policymaking to address the ecological effects of acid rain in North America. The values above exceed cost estimates of reducing SO2 and NOx emissions from power plants subject to the Clear Skies initiative if the cost share is determined according to the share of these emissions actually being deposited in the park.