How To Talk About The Environment

How To Talk About…
ENVIRONMENT

THE COST OF REGULATION


  • All Americans want a clean, healthy, and safe environment. But excessive regulation reduces job creation and economic growth.
  • The White House, Congress, and federal agencies routinely ignore costs, exaggerate benefits, and breach legislative and constitutional boundaries when enacting environmental regulations.
  • The Paris Protocol, an international agreement signed by President Obama, imposes such high burdens that it will cost Americans thousands each year, with little impact on the environment.

BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP


  • The U.S. should not have to choose between a clean environment and economic growth. The way to a clean environment is through economic principles like property rights and business rights that encourage economic prosperity and empower good stewardship of the environment from those closest to it.
  • Congress should return environmental rule-making to the states, where environmental policy is best handled.

POLICY PROPOSALS


  1. Shift responsibility for environmental regulation from the federal government to the states and the private sector.
  2. Prohibit the EPA and other agencies from regulating carbon dioxide (CO2).
  3. Define the waters covered under the Clean Water Act.
  4. Establish a sunset date for environmental regulations.

QUICK FACTS


  1. In 2009-2015, the EPA issued 3,243 regulations. Thirty-three were “major regulations,” costing$10 billion annually.
  2. In 1970-2012, aggregate national emissions of six common pollutants dropped an average of 72 percent, while GDP grew by 219 percent.
  3. The federal government owns and controls 640 million acres, nearly one-third of the entire United States.

Go back to the main list of “Pocket Solutions.“

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