Free and Green: A New Approach to Environmental Protection

Most Americans consider themselves environmentalists, yet most experts are dissatisfied with existing environmental regulations, which are both inefficient and inequitable. Worse, many don\u27t serve environmental goals. This article outlines an alternative approach to environmental policy based on market institutions and property rights rather than central-planning and bureaucratic control. The aim is both to improve environmental protection and lessen the costs ? Economic and otherwise ? Of achieving environmental goals. It seeks to ensure that Americans\u27 environmental values are advanced without sacrificing the individual liberties the American government was created to protect. The problem with current regulatory approaches is not merely that they are inefficient or overly bureaucratic. Rather, it is the reliance upon centralized, regulatory institutions to prioritize and pursue environmental goals. An alternative paradigm for environmental protection is grounded in market institutions, property rights in particular. This approach, often referred to as free market environmentalism, focuses on institutions and the incentives that they create. It advances environmental protection by incorporating environmental resources and values into the marketplace, rather than regulating them outside economic institutions. This paper provides a theoretical overview of a property-based approach to environmental protection and the outlines a series of principles that should guide those interested in a more efficient, effective, and equitable approach to environmental protection with specific examples of policy reforms that can reconcile environmental protection and market institutions

Free and Green: A New Approach to Environmental Protection

Most Americans consider themselves environmentalists, yet most experts are dissatisfied with existing environmental regulations, which are both inefficient and inequitable. Worse, many don\u27t serve environmental goals. This article outlines an alternative approach to environmental policy based on market institutions and property rights rather than central-planning and bureaucratic control. The aim is both to improve environmental protection and lessen the costs ? Economic and otherwise ? Of achieving environmental goals. It seeks to ensure that Americans\u27 environmental values are advanced without sacrificing the individual liberties the American government was created to protect. The problem with current regulatory approaches is not merely that they are inefficient or overly bureaucratic. Rather, it is the reliance upon centralized, regulatory institutions to prioritize and pursue environmental goals. An alternative paradigm for environmental protection is grounded in market institutions, property rights in particular. This approach, often referred to as free market environmentalism, focuses on institutions and the incentives that they create. It advances environmental protection by incorporating environmental resources and values into the marketplace, rather than regulating them outside economic institutions. This paper provides a theoretical overview of a property-based approach to environmental protection and the outlines a series of principles that should guide those interested in a more efficient, effective, and equitable approach to environmental protection with specific examples of policy reforms that can reconcile environmental protection and market institutions

Hardrock Homesteads: Free Access and the General Mining Law of 1872

Most discussions of the US General Mining Law of 1872 begin with the premise that the statute is an outdated relic of 19th-century attitudes towards resources and should be replaced with a modern system of royalties, permits and concessions. In contrast, this article argues that the statute provides institutional mechanisms that resolve incentive problems created by government ownership of mineral resources. Instead of calling for radical change in US mining laws, the authors hold up the free access principle of the General Mining Law of 1872 as a model for privatisation of assets whose value is unknown

Agricultural Revolutions and Agency Wars: How the 1950s Laid the Groundwork for Silent Spring

This chapter from the book Silent Spring at 50 analyzes the 1950s struggle over US food policy between USDA and FDA and how that struggle set the stage for the impact of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Using a public choice/interest group analysis, the chapter examines how the two agencies reacted to the large scale transformation of US agriculture and food production during and following World War II. Just as agriculture underwent a dramatic productivity revolution that changed the face of American farming, marketing, new home appliances, and increased participation in the labor force by women radically changed the kinds of foods Americans ate. The consumption of processed foods increased significantly, and, concomitantly, concern about the purity of those foods increased as well. These trends served as the backdrop for a struggle between FDA and USDA over multiple dimensions of agricultural policy, including pesticide regulation. Using the records of hearings held in 1950 and 1951, we explore how the competing interest groups involved used the issue in their larger struggle over control of regulation of processed foods. We then fit the struggle into Bruce Yandle’s “Bootleggers and Baptists” theory of regulation

Finding Better Words: Markets, Property, Rights, and Resources

To use or conserve environmental and natural resources effectively is complex. Many economists believe that institutional solutions built around markets and property rights can help improve results. This approach addresses what Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto termed the “missing lessons of U.S. history”— institutions whose designers may not have understood the outcomes that would occur, but the results were generally beneficial. However, technical economic analysis generally fails to persuade many at the policy level. Adding a focus on the practicality of solving issues by voluntary action will enrich the policy discussions. To do so requires economists to provide concrete examples of how to resolve environmental issues. In this Article, we contrast the narratives given to support markets and property rights and state-centered solutions. The analysis suggests how to frame issues to increase opportunities for market and property rights solutions to be more broadly considered. In short, economists must stop talking past the dedicated environmentalists who have learned to communicate effectively with the public but often lack cost-effective alternatives to address environmental problems that economists can provide. Better narratives allow economists to join the public conversation successfully