Page 199 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

import and consume goods and resources from far and wide polluters by ordering them to stop their operations or pay dam-
exert extensive impacts on the planet’s environmental sys- ages to the affected individuals. However, as industrialization
tems. Multinational corporations operate outside the reach of proceeded and population grew denser, pollution became harder
national laws and rarely have incentive to conserve resources to avoid and judges were reluctant to hinder industry, which was
or conduct their business sustainably in the nations where they viewed to be promoting society’s economic development.
operate. For all these reasons, in today’s globalizing world the In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case Boomer
organizations and institutions that shape international policy v. Atlantic Cement Company. The court ruled that residents of
are becoming increasingly influential. Albany, New York, who were suffering pollution from a nearby
cement plant were entitled to financial compensation. However,
the court refused to shut down the plant. Instead, it allowed the
Approaches to plant to continue operating once it paid the residents. The court
had calculated that the economic costs to the company of con-
Environmental Policy trolling its pollution were greater than the economic costs of
the pollution to the residents, and the court based its decision
When most of us think of environmental policy, what comes on an attempt to minimize overall costs. In handing down this
to mind are major laws, such as the Clean Water Act, or gov- ruling, the justices essentially let the market decide between
ernment regulations, such as those limiting what an industry right and wrong. For people concerned about the pervasive
can dump into a water supply. However, environmental policy spread of pollution through society, rulings like these showed
is diverse and can follow three major approaches (Figure 7.13). that tort law was no longer a viable avenue for preventing pol-
These approaches include lawsuits in the courts, command- lution. People began to view legislation and regulation as more
and-control policy, and economic policy tools. effective means of protecting public health and safety.

Conflicts can be addressed in court
SOLUTIONS
Prior to the legislative push of recent decades, most environmen- Three policy approaches
tal policy questions in the United States were addressed with
lawsuits in the courts through tort law, which is law that deals
with harm caused to one entity by another. (The word tort is
French for a wrong or an injustice.) Most pollution issues were
subject primarily to nuisance law, one form of tort law. Individu-
als suffering external costs from pollution would seek redress
through lawsuits against polluters, one case at a time, much
as some residents of Dimock, Pennsylvania, are doing today
against Cabot Oil and Gas. The courts sometimes punished
1 People can sue factory in court.

PROBLEM
Pollution from factory harms people’s health

EPA

2 Government can regulate emissions.

Figure 7.13 Three major policy approaches exist to resolve
environmental problems. To address pollution from a factory, 3
we might 1 seek damages through lawsuits, 2 limit pollution Economic policy tools can create incentives: A
factory that pollutes less (right) will outcompete
through legislation and regulation, or 3 reduce pollution using one that pollutes more (left) through permit-trading,
198 market-based strategies. avoiding green taxes, or selling ecolabeled products.

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