Superfund liability). This is an issue that is currently having an
dramatic impact on the industry. The impact is being felt in
transactions involving the potential sale of properties, insuring
operations, development of new properties, joint ventures, or more
generally, practically every phase of the mining firms operation. The
second issue focuses on an environmental topic that has not been
specifically addressed in federal legislation, although it has been
indirectly considered, that is global warming or the "greenhouse
effect". One of the interesting aspects to this environmental problem is
the uncertainty associated with it at every phase of the analysis. The
predictions of the general circulation models of climatologists are
questioned due to the uncertainty of ocean effects, urbanization, etc.
(see Burness & Martin, Chapter 5). The economic models are criticized
for the uncertainty associated with the benefit estimates from reducing
greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (COJ, concentrations in
the atmosphere as well as estimates of the cost of reducing GHG
concentrations and/or emissions. This raises the interesting question of
what is the optimal policy and what will be the impact of this policy(s)
on the mining sector, given the uncertainty. The first of these two
topics is addressed by V. Kerry Smith and Ronald G. Cummings, et al.
Professors Smith and Cummings were chosen due to their pioneering work
in the area of valuation of nonmarket goods, particularly involving the
use of survey methods.