Environmental Politics

Buell, John, The Humanist

When Bill Clinton and Al Gore ran for office in 1992, they promised a new solution to the growing problem of environmental degradation. They wanted to bring more economic rationality into environmental regulation by placing a tax on pollutants discharged into the environment. Such an approach, they argued, would give business an incentive to find the most costeffective ways to handle pollutants.

In the abstract, one cannot quarrel with the goal of marrying economics and ecology, for surely any approach to environmental regulation cannot be politically viable unless it also helps human beings meet pressing economic needs. But as is the case in other policy areas, there are good reasons to question whether simply tinkering at the margin with our current corporate economy will give us either …

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Publication information: Article title: Environmental Politics. Contributors: Buell, John - Author. Magazine title: The Humanist. Volume: 54. Issue: 5 Publication date: September-October 1994. Page number: 45. © 1999 American Humanist Association. COPYRIGHT 1994 Gale Group.

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