At the same time, however, economists were proposing effluent taxes as a policy that could both generate incentives to meet ambient quality targets and minimize the costs of doing so. Moreover, proponents of effluent fees received a receptive hearing in the political arena. The Environmental Pollution Panel of the President’s Science Advisory Committee recommended in 1965 “that careful study be given to tax-like systems in which all polluters would be subject to ‘effluent charges’ in proportion to their contribution to pollution . Effluent charges have enhanced effects because individual polluters always have a prospect of financial gain from.
