The Economics Of Clean Air Essay Research — страница 2

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the U.S. each year. The units of pollution, or credits, are distributed evenly among production companies, mining factories, and other producers of such externalities based on size, output and strength in the industry. Companies are allowed to sell their credits if they want, which enables companies whose pollution rates exceeds their limit in a particular area to still operate in a particular area to still operate efficiently while not exceeding their maximum level of pollution output. There are many arguments for and against this method of regulation. The bigger and richer companies get to produce the most pollution in the end while the current system alienates newer, more finantially strapped firms. What makes the current system more unfair is that the emission allotments of

certain states are more lenient than others. For example, in Western Pennsylvania, there are strict regulations on emission output levels, while 35 miles west in Ohio, there are more lenient levels of precautions. The results of this is that many companies don’t look to move or produce in PA and would rather just do so in Ohio. The results have been disastrous for the Western Penn. economy. This system with seemingly limitless updates and new precautions are cutting back on jobs and increasing overall unemployment. Theorists contend that in a market driven economy, competition alone serves as an adequate regulatory device. Make a poor product or price it too high and your competitors will make more money. Better yet, with less regulations, businesses have more money to grow

faster, hire more employees and offer greater returns to shareholders. Money that can be spent on cleaning pollution up is often just spend on litigation. The lawyers get paid protecting the precautions, while the dump just stays put. That money in turn would have been channeled more effectively if there were less precautions. Many people contend however, that precautions are supposed to be a burden and that keeps businesses from doing what they want to do, which is the primary nature of any law. As with any environmental protection regulation nowadays, the regulations imposed on cars, coal-fired power plants and other human resources in an attempt to thwart or at least slow down the effects of global warming, has met with angry responses from the domestic oil, coal, and

utilities industry. The United Mine Workers, a key member of the labor coalition that supported President Clinton’s reelection has also registered it’s concerns. The supporters of these measures have valid arguments for the precautions they expect to be signed into law sometime this year. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and their products such as gasoline, produces carbon monoxide, a greenhouse gas which can build up in the atmosphere. Scientists believe that the continual buildup of these compounds could lead to devastating climate changes in the next century unless their buildup is slowed. Opponents of the new precautions believe that the new precautions could lead to the deindustrialization of the U.S. and unless stopped, the entire world. Shifting the world

away from fossil fuels also provides enormous economic, political, and diplomatic challenges. Many developing nations such as China are dependent on coal-generated power to drive their economic growth over the next several decades. U.S. utilities uses coal to produce more than half of the nation’s electricity. Plentiful U.S. coal supplies have also meant power for many U.S. companies where coal is plentiful. Air and water are concrete parts of all of our lives. With the destruction and continual pollution being pumped into our ecosystem, who knows how long it will be before the whole world is contaminated to the point where we can no longer live in it. The beuracrats in Washington don’t have all the answers, neither do the unions, or the big corporations. The idea and impact

of pollution is like a time-bomb waiting to explode, and the end draws nearer and nearer. We cannot look back on our world after we have destroyed it and comment on things we should have done differently.