ReThinking Environmental Policy
April 27th, 2008 ecoli‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ is a wise waste management policy and words to live by. However, we also need to ‘Rethink’ our approaches to environmental policy and the role of government in its enforcement.
Government organizations, implemented by legislation or executive order, tend to be large and intrusive. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example, has largely been a positive motivator for environmental awareness; however, this large federal bureaucracy also uses its power to violate states rights. Back in February, the EPA blocked 16 states from raising fuel economy standards for new cars, with unreasonable justification. Presumably, EPA administrators were trying to shield the automakers from environmental responsibility.
Though, thankfully, this type of abuse of power is not too frequent, the fact that any federal agency not administrated by elected officials has this level of authority is worrisome. Furthermore, it is against the spirit of the Constitution to forbid states from making their own environmental policy, especially when that policy would tend to improve the environment.
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