In his September/October 2005 "An Economic Perspective" piece for The Environmental Forum, Rob Stavins considers the uncertainty surrounding benefit-cost analysis (What Baseball Can Teach Policymakers):
... the most prominently displayed results in RIAs are typically single, apparently precise point estimates of benefits, costs, and net benefits (benefits minus costs), masking uncertainties inherent in their calculation and possibly obscuring tradeoffs among competing policy options.
He goes on to describe the requirement for uncertainty analysis required by OMB's Circular A-4 on Regulatory Analysis:
It has the potential to improve substantially our understanding of the impact of environmental regulations, and thereby to lead to more informed policymaking.