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between the region and the remainder of the economy.13 Decisions, however, concerning the <br />extent to which the resource changes represent national impacts or the extent to which they <br />are pure transfers from elsewhere in the economy still must be made. In what follows, four <br />alternative scenarios are analyzed. These scenarios represent bounds on the results where it is <br />either assumed there is or is not excess construction capacity and whether or not substitute <br />recreation sites exist outside the region. <br />1. Scenario Al and B1-Constniction-Related Impacts <br />The distinction between region-level impacts and national efficiency effects is due to the fact <br />that some region-level impacts are canceled out at the national level through transfers of <br />resources from other parts of the economy. The extent to which the impacts are pure <br />transfers depends on the extent to which capacity remains unused in the relevant economic <br />sectors elsewhere in the economy. The thermal generation capacity expansion, projected to <br />be required to offset losses in hydroelectric generation, involves the construction sector and <br />the combined manufacturing (capital equipment) sector. These are sectors which are sensitive <br />to the overall state of the economy. During economic slowdown periods there is typically <br />considerable excess capacity in these sectors and the expansion within the Colorado Basin <br />Region will draw these idle resources from the national economy. In this case, the net <br />national direct impacts in these sectors will be the same as the regional impacts. This <br />constitutes Scenario Al in the following discussion. Alternatively, if the economy is near or <br />at full employment, the expansion in thermal capacity will simply shift already employed <br />resources from elsewhere in the economy and the net national impacts will be zero. This is <br />the case depicted in Scenario B 1 below. <br />Table I-7-2 reports the impacts associated with the proposed critical habitat designation in <br />terms of percentage deviation from the without fish scenario. Under Scenario Al there is an <br />expansion in the national economy and this expansion is reported in Table I-7-2 relative to <br />the level of economic activity in the Colorado River Basin region. Thus, the expansion <br />13 A presentation of consumer surplus and producer measures can be found in Volume II, Chapter II-15. <br />I-42 <br />