EPA Policies
The environmental protection agency has been stepping up its mandate of ensuring safer and better environment for not only the business operators, buts also the society as a whole. In order to achieve this goal of environmental protection, there has been the creation of environmental protection agency that has ensured that all the businesses, irrespective of their size and type, strive to ensure that the environment is protected for the benefit of current and future generations.
The regulatory measures target the emissions from industries as well as the products resulting from certain industries. The agency establishes certain regulations that seek to standardize the emissions in terms of quantity and if companies are found to be incapable of cutting down the level of emissions, more charges are levied, in order to help reverse the harmful effects using other means (Lieberman, 2010). When more charges are levied, one of the entities mostly affected is the business community. Such businessmen have to spend more in order to be allowed to operate within any region. This increases the cost of production and most companies are being forced into insolvency by the increased charges on pollution.
The other impact of environmental regulations is that on economic costs. Since the agency issues specific allowed emissions, companies have to cut down their production in order to reduce the emissions. Failure to consider production rates makes companies to be taxed more and this in turn reduces their returns. With reduced production, the companies lose huge amounts of money and due to reduced returns most employees are laid off (Meyer, 1995). Although in the past this regulation was perceived to only affect big investors, it h...
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...unbalanced competition. As a result, the regulated products have experienced less competition and the alternatives huge competition. It is therefore evident that while regulations are meant to protect the health and lives of humanity, they indirectly affect their lives through distorted economies.
Works Cited
Lieberman, B. (2010). Small business impact of the EPA endangerment finding. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/01/small-business-impact-of-the-epa-endangerment-finding
Meyer, S. M. (1995). The economic impact of environmental regulation. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/polisci/mpepp/Reports/Econ%20Impact%20Enviro%20Reg.pdf
Miller, N., Snyder, L., & Stavins, R. (2003). The effects of environmental regulation on technology diffusion: The case of chlorine manufacturing. Cambridge, MA: Center for Business and Government.
Such a plan would have a massively negative effect on the economy while having a negligible effect on the climate. Taxpayers whom fund the EPA will feel the burden of the ever-increasing regulations and rules set in place by the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency is overstepping its boundaries, as an agency of the government while other agency’s and branches of the government must reclaim their authority in order to divert such an inadequate
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates air pollution through various policies passed through the Supreme Court. The scope of this paper is to investigate the Clean Air Act of 1970, and to analyze the impact it has on businesses and society. It provides a rationale for the policy, and contains a brief overview of governmental involvement in regulating air pollution. Further investigation identifies key stakeholders in business, government, and society, and assesses the pros and cons of regulating air pollution. Finally, the paper concludes with limitations of this analysis and recommendations for future action.
As the firms have to pay extra costs of what they produce and emit, they have to clearly bring sustainability as the main target of their businesses in order to reduce their emissions. Not doing so, will drop the profits in their business as they have to pay the price for extra emitted carbon. Further it will bring down their reputation from those companies in the market whose carbon labelling will be better. Thus they will have no choice but to take actions. They have to bring sustainability to the core target of their firm. On other hand, it would engage the thoughtful attention of every household and enterprise to the effort to reduce emissions.[6] (Repetto, Cap and Trade is Better Climate Policy than a Carbon Tax, 2013) Each emitter, direct or indirect, would face higher prices for fossil-based energy and for energy intensive goods and services. Each one would then be motivated to find ways to minimize those cost increases in the least onerous way. All the resourcefulness and creativity that the economy and population can muster would be engaged in the effort, not because of environmental commitment or citizenship but because of economic self-interest. Although a large majority of Americans believes that greenhouse gases should be reduced, that alone has not been enough to motivate their actions on nearly the scale required. Values must be supported by economic self interest which is present in the cap and trade policy.
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
They enforce the proper disposal of waste material, the restrictions on greenhouse emissions, pollutants, and other substances harmful to land, water, and our atmosphere. I do support the EPA because it is protecting the very environment that we need to live in. The EPA was created to protect human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on the laws passed by the Congress. I believe that the EPA is necessary, but it does come at a cost. With the EPA, businesses are forced to follow strict guidelines. This comes at a monetary cost that can sometimes cost a great deal of money. This in turn makes the products they produce more expensive for consumer. Overall, I do believe that the EPA and all the rules and regulations they enforce are worth the price at which they are given. Another modern example of government regulations on businesses is sticker shock. Sticker shock is a about fuel economy standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the EPA finalized new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light truck for the year 2017-2025. They are requiring the average fuel economy be 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Although this would be great, I don’t think that it is realistic. The sticker price for cars will dramatically increase, and ultimately have a negative effect on the overall economy. I don’t support this regulation as it is unfair and unjust to set
Wood, Joel. "The Effects Of Environmental Regulation On The Competitiveness Of US Manufacturing." Fraser Forum (2012): 25. Business Source Complete. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.< http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.gatekeeper2.lindenwood.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/ pdfviewer?sid=232efdbd-1043-415b-af6f-5a75b828a29a%40sessionmgr4003&vid= 5&hid=4111>.
Key regulations: According to the GAO, the two major regulations namely, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and Department of Transportation’s (DOT) coordinated fuel economy and the greenhouse gas (GHG) vehicle emission standards, as well as EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) have contributed to declining petroleum-based fuel consumption. For some refiners, adherence to the RFS increased costs in the first half of 2013, although costs have significantly declined to some degree from their peak ( United States Government Accountability Office , 2014).
One of the consequences of regulation not captured by measuring its direct cost (administration and compliance) is the severe limits it can impose on people's freedom to make their own choices based on their individual circumstances and tolerance for risk. Government regulation also dampens innovation, delays development of products, stifles entrepreneurship, restricts competition, and slows growth of productivity.
To create an outcome that benefits the society in addition to the firm, governments put regulations into place. The externalities of exploiting a resources that produces air are monstrous. In this case, the exchange can cost society lives. Government intervention works to fill the gap of these externalities, to reduce economic freedom in certain circumstances and regulate through appropriate methods like taxation and cap-and-trade programs. In The Lorax, the government should have intervened with regulations that would make the Onceler plant just as many trees as he cut down. This would minimize the deadweight
The overall mission of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is “to protect human health and environment” (EPA, 2017). One of the main jobs of the EPA is to implement environmental laws written by congress by writing regulations. The EPA sets nationwide standards that states and their regulations and the enforcement of them. In order to successfully regulate environmental laws, the EPA helps educate companies of the requirements. The EPA overviews the enforcement of The Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act is a comprehensive federal law which regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources (EPA, 2017). The Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQSs) in order to protect
The problem with pollution prevention is that it requires people to understand more than the intimate details of the production process; they must also understand the technical possibilities. Many corporations have environmental managers, which are generally responsible for helping corporations comply with the law. According to the case study, the work of environmental managers often expose them to many pollution prevention solutions, but they often have trouble getting access to production areas. Production often sees Environmental Managers as "the compliance police".
Laws are often changing. A law needs to keep up with the changing views and values of a society. Things like events and technology are just two examples of what may produce a law or a change to a law. A law would need to accommodate a technology to regulate it for safety and how it’s used. Events also need to be regulated by law for safety and if it was a terrible event (9/11), then a law, or laws, are needed to prevent it from happening again. Laws pertaining to the environment are always changing because human interaction with the environment is always changing, whether its pollution, hunting, or overusing resources, these things need to be constantly regulated. This paper describes how the Clean Air Act developed and changed. The
... Conflict, 969). Some people may argue that EPA regulations have not made much of a difference because people still are developing respiratory issues and skin cancer because of the stronger sun radiation caused by ozone depletion; however, without these new laws emissions of toxic substances would be out of control. There definitely needs to be more done to continue to target air pollution caused by changes within society. Not everyone agrees with the decisions that EPA makes to diminish air pollutants because they believe that the costs outweigh the benefits produced. But they need to understand that EPA makes decisions not to make their life more difficult and to hurt the economy, but because it is their duty to protect the health, welfare, and the environment of the public. With this in mind regulations set by EPA have definitely been the most cost effective.
Our Congress created the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 in order to establish an environmental foundation for mankind. This policy endorses harmony between humans and the vast ecosystems surrounding them. To obtain this goal and provide our future with resources as well, NEPA is separated into two titles. The first title declares the policy in detail while the second title focuses on the Council on Environmental Quality. The CEQ oversees the effectiveness of current methods, the reactions of the environment to those methods, and implements revisions as necessary.
The environment around us gives us the habitat to live, is a condition for our existence and development so that protecting environment which is one of today’s most serious issues means protecting our lives. But almost every day we hear a new problem badly affecting the environment. The list of the new difficulties seems to be endless. We are all aware of these concerns and can admit that we caused them. Now, environmental protection is not the work of a single individual as it is the responsibility of the whole community, of every single person exists on this planet. The measures range from each citizen to the government.