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Due to property rights, all pollution was illegal prior to the EPA. The EPA's purpose is to determine how much pollution is allowed. During the immediate peri
by 13years 9y ago
Due to property rights, all pollution was illegal prior to the EPA.
The EPA's purpose is to determine how much pollution is allowed.
During the immediate period prior to the EPA, it wasn't so much it was legal, but the courts began to ignore property rights due to the pressures of what was believed to be common good to let industries thrive.
In some cases property rights are much stricter and can be better enforced, in other cases they are more difficult in areas such as air pollution.
- rayiner 9y ago> During the immediate period prior to the EPA, By "immediate period" you mean a couple of hundred years before 1970. English courts started ignoring property rights (e.g. the right of downstream riparian users to undiminished water quality from upstream activities) in the 1700s or so during the first industrial revolution.
- 13years 9y agoTrue, poorly worded on my part. Intended to mean the state of the situations immediately prior was that property rights were no longer enforced, but that process took some time to undo such as the 1939 Restatement of Torts. For anyone interested in a deep dive on the matter. A good reference book 'Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy'