Until relatively recently, air and water were viewed as common property, as "free goods." Individuals and organizations, both public and private, used the environment as a converient dump-which, of course, is the act of polluter polluting.
Protecting the evironment covers a great variety of concerns - air pollution, water pollution, pesticides, toxic substances, hazardous wastes, unsafe drinking water, ocean dumping, noise emissions, and other adverse impacts on human health and ecological systems.
Most air pollution results from economic activity. Transportation services and industrial processes are mainly responsible for emissions of hydrocarbons, nontoxic organic gases not dangerous by themselves.
The Clean Water Act is the basis for the nation's water cleanup program. The act sets two specific national goals.
Four major environmental statutes cover hazardous and toxic substance; they are usually referred to by their acronyms: TSCA, RCRA, FIFRA, and CERCLA or Superfund.
The costs of compliance with environmental laws is quite uneven. A proportionately greater burden is borne by small factories because of the economies of scale incolced in regulatory compliance.
Source:Business and Government in the Global Marketplace (seventh edition Murray L. Weidenbaum)
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