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Generated User Benefits and the Heathrow Expansion: Understanding Consumer Surplus
By Elizabeth A. Stanton and Frank Ackerman, July 2008
This report responds to the decision of the UK Department for Transportation (DfT) to expand Heathrow Airport, a decision that was based on DfT’s forecasts of the costs and benefits of the expansion. The use of the technical concept of consumer surplus threatens to conceal the underlying reality: DfT minimizes concerns about carbon emissions and other environmental impacts, and forecasts that a bigger airport must be better, simply because so many people will enjoy flying more. DfT also did not consider alternatives such as improved ground transportation, which will look much better if oil prices remain high.
Frank Ackerman and Liz Stanton work closely with the Friends of the Earth – England, Wales and Northern Ireland., a chapter of the international grassroots organization that challenges the current model of economic and corporate globalization, and promotes solutions that will help to create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.
Download the report (pdf):
Generated User Benefits and the Heathrow Expansion:
Understanding Consumer Surplus
News Coverage
"Aviation: Half price oil, cheaper tickets -- report sees flaws in case for third Heathrow runway" by Dan Milmo, transport correspondent, The Guardian, 07-23-08
Press Release: Economic case for Heathrow airport flawed, says new report, Friends of the Earth, 07-23-08