Jogeephus":3gwiup62 said:
Bright Raven":3gwiup62 said:
Looks like the clean air act is working.
I admit from 33 years of regulatory enforcement, we don't always get it right. I remember some things we required on surface mines that made absolutely no sense.
I don't mean to sound like I'm discounting the importance of conservation or anything like that. The mandate for BMP's was a wonderful thing and has done much good for the environment. The thing is, as I'm sure you know, these things are much more complex than most understand - including scientists but especially the lawyer politician types.
Nature is an amazing thing. Nature hates a vacuum and moves toward an equilibrium. Politics are much easier to understand. To understand politics, all we need do is follow the money and this scheme is nothing more than a tax wrapped up all cute and cuddly.
Yes, the environmental protection process gets complex. First, Congress passes an Act. The content of the acts is prepared by legislators, lawyers, and technical consultants. The result is an Act that the regulatory agency is mandated to implement. Then the regulatory agency, through the process of promulgation, prepares regulations to implement and carry out the mandate of the Act. The end result is not perfect. Often times, it does not go far enough for one side and it goes too far for the other side.
Regarding the tax, having worked on teams that promulgate regulations, having worked as an enforcement agent and an enforcement specialist. The money is not the objective. The objective is to achieve the environmental change that spawned the reason Congress passed the Act. In general, it is not about taxing.
The money generated by environmental regulation is not significant.