SPEA E363 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
QUIZ 2 STUDY GUIDE 2026 – COMPLETE
CONCEPT REVIEW & PRACTICE MATERIALS
(LATEST EDITION)
SECTION 1: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY INSTRUMENTS & REGULATORY APPROACHES
1. Q: What is the main difference between command-and-control and market-
based environmental policies?
A: Command-and-control sets specific limits or technologies; market-based uses
economic incentives (e.g., taxes, permits) to achieve goals.
2. Q: Which U.S. law is the cornerstone of air pollution control?
A: The Clean Air Act (CAA).
3. Q: What is a performance standard?
A: A regulation that sets an emissions limit but lets the firm choose how to achieve it.
4. Q: What does technology-forcing regulation mean?
A: Laws that push industry to develop new technologies to meet strict standards (e.g.,
CAA auto emissions).
5. Q: Define emission taxes (Pigouvian taxes).
A: Taxes imposed per unit of pollution to internalize external costs.
6. Q: What is a tradable permit system (cap-and-trade)?
A: A system where total pollution is capped, and permits can be traded among polluters.
7. Q: Which program is a successful example of cap-and-trade in the U.S.?
A: The Acid Rain Program (SO₂ allowances).
8. Q: What is the Coase Theorem?
A: Under certain conditions, private bargaining can resolve environmental externalities
without government intervention.
, 9. Q: What is a voluntary environmental agreement?
A: Agreements where industry voluntarily commits to environmental improvements,
often to avoid stricter regulation.
10. Q: What is environmental standard setting based on Best Available Technology (BAT)?
A: Regulations requiring the use of the best technology available to reduce emissions.
SECTION 2: ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS & VALUATION
11. Q: What is an externality?
A: A cost or benefit affecting a third party who did not choose to incur it (e.g., pollution).
12. Q: What does internalizing an externality mean?
A: Making the polluter (or beneficiary) bear the full social cost or benefit of their actions.
13. Q: Define marginal abatement cost (MAC).
A: The cost to reduce one additional unit of pollution.
14. Q: What is the socially optimal level of pollution?
A: The point where marginal abatement cost equals marginal damage cost.
15. Q: What is non-use value in environmental economics?
A: Value people place on an environmental good even if they never use it (e.g., existence
value).
16. Q: What is contingent valuation?
A: A survey method to estimate willingness-to-pay for environmental goods.
17. Q: What is the discount rate in cost-benefit analysis?
A: The rate used to convert future costs/benefits into present value.
18. Q: Why is discounting controversial in environmental projects?
A: It can undervalue long-term environmental benefits for future generations.
19. Q: What is the Precautionary Principle?
A: Where there are threats of serious damage, lack of scientific certainty should not
postpone cost-effective preventive measures.
, 20. Q: What is cost-effectiveness analysis vs. cost-benefit analysis?
A: Cost-effectiveness finds the cheapest way to meet a goal; CBA compares total costs to
total benefits.
SECTION 3: RISK ASSESSMENT & MANAGEMENT
21. Q: What are the four steps of risk assessment?
A: Hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, risk
characterization.
22. Q: What is risk management?
A: The process of deciding how to address risks based on assessment, policy, and social
factors.
23. Q: What is the difference between risk and hazard?
A: Hazard is the potential for harm; risk is the probability and magnitude of harm
occurring.
24. Q: What is a carcinogen?
A: A substance capable of causing cancer.
25. Q: What does LD₅₀ mean?
A: Lethal dose for 50% of a test population.
26. Q: What is ecological risk assessment?
A: Evaluating the likelihood of adverse ecological effects from stressors.
27. Q: What is the role of uncertainty in risk assessment?
A: It requires conservative assumptions and safety factors to protect public health.
28. Q: What is comparative risk analysis?
A: Ranking environmental problems by their severity to prioritize policy actions.
29. Q: What is risk communication?
A: The exchange of information about risk between experts, officials, and the public.
30. Q: What is a reference dose (RfD)?
A: An estimate of a daily exposure unlikely to cause adverse health effects.
, SECTION 4: SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
31. Q: What is the Brundtland Commission definition of sustainable development?
A: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs.”
32. Q: What are the three pillars of sustainability?
A: Environmental, economic, and social.
33. Q: What is intergenerational equity?
A: Fairness in rights and resources between current and future generations.
34. Q: What is the Environmental Justice movement concerned with?
A: The fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across all communities.
35. Q: What is the Tragedy of the Commons?
A: Shared resources are overused because individuals act in self-interest, leading to
depletion.
36. Q: What is ecological economics?
A: A field that sees the economy as a subsystem of the finite global ecosystem.
37. Q: What is strong sustainability vs. weak sustainability?
A: Strong: natural capital must be preserved. Weak: human-made capital can substitute
for natural capital.
38. Q: What are ecosystem services?
A: Benefits humans obtain from ecosystems (provisioning, regulating, cultural,
supporting).
39. Q: What is the Triple Bottom Line?
A: Measuring performance by social, environmental, and financial results.
40. Q: What is carrying capacity?
A: The maximum population size an environment can sustain indefinitely.
SECTION 5: CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY
41. Q: What is the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC?
A: Stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations to prevent dangerous anthropogenic
climate change.
QUIZ 2 STUDY GUIDE 2026 – COMPLETE
CONCEPT REVIEW & PRACTICE MATERIALS
(LATEST EDITION)
SECTION 1: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY INSTRUMENTS & REGULATORY APPROACHES
1. Q: What is the main difference between command-and-control and market-
based environmental policies?
A: Command-and-control sets specific limits or technologies; market-based uses
economic incentives (e.g., taxes, permits) to achieve goals.
2. Q: Which U.S. law is the cornerstone of air pollution control?
A: The Clean Air Act (CAA).
3. Q: What is a performance standard?
A: A regulation that sets an emissions limit but lets the firm choose how to achieve it.
4. Q: What does technology-forcing regulation mean?
A: Laws that push industry to develop new technologies to meet strict standards (e.g.,
CAA auto emissions).
5. Q: Define emission taxes (Pigouvian taxes).
A: Taxes imposed per unit of pollution to internalize external costs.
6. Q: What is a tradable permit system (cap-and-trade)?
A: A system where total pollution is capped, and permits can be traded among polluters.
7. Q: Which program is a successful example of cap-and-trade in the U.S.?
A: The Acid Rain Program (SO₂ allowances).
8. Q: What is the Coase Theorem?
A: Under certain conditions, private bargaining can resolve environmental externalities
without government intervention.
, 9. Q: What is a voluntary environmental agreement?
A: Agreements where industry voluntarily commits to environmental improvements,
often to avoid stricter regulation.
10. Q: What is environmental standard setting based on Best Available Technology (BAT)?
A: Regulations requiring the use of the best technology available to reduce emissions.
SECTION 2: ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS & VALUATION
11. Q: What is an externality?
A: A cost or benefit affecting a third party who did not choose to incur it (e.g., pollution).
12. Q: What does internalizing an externality mean?
A: Making the polluter (or beneficiary) bear the full social cost or benefit of their actions.
13. Q: Define marginal abatement cost (MAC).
A: The cost to reduce one additional unit of pollution.
14. Q: What is the socially optimal level of pollution?
A: The point where marginal abatement cost equals marginal damage cost.
15. Q: What is non-use value in environmental economics?
A: Value people place on an environmental good even if they never use it (e.g., existence
value).
16. Q: What is contingent valuation?
A: A survey method to estimate willingness-to-pay for environmental goods.
17. Q: What is the discount rate in cost-benefit analysis?
A: The rate used to convert future costs/benefits into present value.
18. Q: Why is discounting controversial in environmental projects?
A: It can undervalue long-term environmental benefits for future generations.
19. Q: What is the Precautionary Principle?
A: Where there are threats of serious damage, lack of scientific certainty should not
postpone cost-effective preventive measures.
, 20. Q: What is cost-effectiveness analysis vs. cost-benefit analysis?
A: Cost-effectiveness finds the cheapest way to meet a goal; CBA compares total costs to
total benefits.
SECTION 3: RISK ASSESSMENT & MANAGEMENT
21. Q: What are the four steps of risk assessment?
A: Hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, risk
characterization.
22. Q: What is risk management?
A: The process of deciding how to address risks based on assessment, policy, and social
factors.
23. Q: What is the difference between risk and hazard?
A: Hazard is the potential for harm; risk is the probability and magnitude of harm
occurring.
24. Q: What is a carcinogen?
A: A substance capable of causing cancer.
25. Q: What does LD₅₀ mean?
A: Lethal dose for 50% of a test population.
26. Q: What is ecological risk assessment?
A: Evaluating the likelihood of adverse ecological effects from stressors.
27. Q: What is the role of uncertainty in risk assessment?
A: It requires conservative assumptions and safety factors to protect public health.
28. Q: What is comparative risk analysis?
A: Ranking environmental problems by their severity to prioritize policy actions.
29. Q: What is risk communication?
A: The exchange of information about risk between experts, officials, and the public.
30. Q: What is a reference dose (RfD)?
A: An estimate of a daily exposure unlikely to cause adverse health effects.
, SECTION 4: SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
31. Q: What is the Brundtland Commission definition of sustainable development?
A: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs.”
32. Q: What are the three pillars of sustainability?
A: Environmental, economic, and social.
33. Q: What is intergenerational equity?
A: Fairness in rights and resources between current and future generations.
34. Q: What is the Environmental Justice movement concerned with?
A: The fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across all communities.
35. Q: What is the Tragedy of the Commons?
A: Shared resources are overused because individuals act in self-interest, leading to
depletion.
36. Q: What is ecological economics?
A: A field that sees the economy as a subsystem of the finite global ecosystem.
37. Q: What is strong sustainability vs. weak sustainability?
A: Strong: natural capital must be preserved. Weak: human-made capital can substitute
for natural capital.
38. Q: What are ecosystem services?
A: Benefits humans obtain from ecosystems (provisioning, regulating, cultural,
supporting).
39. Q: What is the Triple Bottom Line?
A: Measuring performance by social, environmental, and financial results.
40. Q: What is carrying capacity?
A: The maximum population size an environment can sustain indefinitely.
SECTION 5: CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY
41. Q: What is the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC?
A: Stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations to prevent dangerous anthropogenic
climate change.
