Re-Thinking Green

EdAlternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy
ited by Carl P. Close, Robert Higgs

By 1990, 25 years of regulations enforced by the EPA had cost the U.S. economy an estimated 22% of the manufacturing output that otherwise would have been produced. The regulations’ drag on productivity was felt strongly throughout the U.S. economy until the mid-90s boom in high-tech industries less touched by environmental policy. (ch. 2)

Entrenched businesses often support regulations for reasons of competitive strategy. Shell Oil and British Petroleum may have reversed their opposition to the Kyoto treaty because they believed that their natural gas and coal deposits would allow them to cope with the treaty’s restrictions more effectively than could their rivals. (ch. 5)

Federal and state agencies spent $529 million per year on endangered-species protection during the 1990s, but they haven’t come close to saving every threatened species in the U.S. as required by law. The Endangered Species Act fails to establish priorities for species recovery and antagonizes property owners instead of rewarding them for conservation. (ch. 7, 8)

In parts of Africa, community-based natural resource management is challenging the “environmental colonialism” of Western organizations. This approach has reduced black-market poaching and improved living standards by enabling locals to benefit from the presence of wildlife. (ch. 9, 10)