TAILIEUCHUNG - ACCOUNTING FOR SUBSOIL MINERAL RESOURCES

Omission of minerals is just one of the issues addressed in the construction of environmental accounts. Still, extending the nipa to include minerals is a natural starting point for the project of environmental accounting. These assets— which include notably petroleum, natural gas, coal, and nonfuel minerals—are already part of the market economy and have important links to environmental policy. Indeed, production from these assets is already included in the nation’s gross domestic product (gdp). Mining is a signifi- cant segment of the nation’s output; gross output originating in mining totaled $90 billion, or percent of gdp,in 1994. Thisfiguremasksthe importance of production of subsoil minerals in certain respects, however, for they are intimately linked to many. | 24 SURVEy GF CURRENT BUSINESS February 2000 Accounting for Subsoil Mineral Resources LAST SUMMER A blue-ribbon panel of the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council completed a congressionally mandated review of the work that the Bureau of Economic Analysis bea had published on integrated economic and environmental accounts. The panel s Snal report commended BEA for its initial work in producing a set of sound and objective prototype accounts. The November 1999 issue of the Survey or Current Business contained an article by William D. Nordhaus the Chair of the Panel that presented an overview of the major issues and findings and a reprint of chapter 5 Overall Appraisal of Environmental Accounting in the United States from the final report. As part of its promise to inform users of the results of this evaluation BEA is reprinting additional chapters from the panel s report below is a reprint of chapter 3 which reviews bea s development of a set of subsoil mineral accounts. This article is reprinted with permission from Nature s Numbers Expanding the National Economic Accounts to Include the Environment. Copyright of the National Academy Press Washington DC. This is a report of the National Research Council prepared by the Panel on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting and edited by William D. Nordhaus and Edward C. Kokkenlenberg. INTRODUCTION SUBSOIL minerals particularly petroleum natural gas and coal have played a key role in the American economy over the last century. They are important industries in themselves but they also are crucial inputs into every sector of the economy from the family automobile to military jets. In recent years the energy sector has been an important contributor to many environmental problems and the use of fossil fuels is high on the list of concerns about greenhouse warming. The National Income and Product Accounts nipa currently contain estimates of the production of mineral products and their flows through the

• Kế toán - Kiểm toán
• Rice Planthoppers
• Regional Biogeography
• Individual Taxa
• Biogeographic Insights
• Central American
• Cycad Biology