The legal structure of American environmental protection persists because environmental protection has been added to the fundamental and irreducible function of government: to protect people from harm.
Sustainability professionals must be equipped to manage in the evolving regulatory landscape that the SEC climate rule will bring.
In the United States, we need strong pollution control standards that are enforced carefully, precisely, and with a deep understanding of the pace of operational change that is feasible for a particular business or locality.
We may soon see a radical anti-regulatory Supreme Court dismantling well-established regulatory practices and endangering America’s environmental quality.
The research shows that many agencies are not thinking about how projects will be affected by climate change and what that means for the projects’ environmental outcomes.
Economic modernization is how we can and hopefully will build an American political consensus behind environmental sustainability.
We are an ingenious species, and when properly motivated, we can build an economy that doesn’t poison people and the planet.
If we can wed the genius of free enterprise to the goal of a less polluted planet, we might find a pathway back to an American environmental consensus.
The only way out is by learning to listen to each other and forging compromises. The alternative is too dire to contemplate.
California’s Air Resource Board and governor deserve enormous credit for moving ahead even in the face of the worsening pandemic. It demonstrates leadership, vision and persistence.