How did we outsource it? We still have semiconductor manufacturing in EU. It's just way behind the cutting edge, and not because it's cleaner than the one in US

How did we outsource it? We still have semiconductor manufacturing in EU. It's just way behind the cutting edge, and not because it's cleaner than the one in US or Taiwan. Semiconductor manufacturing is dirty business. I live in the EU next to one such fab and whenever local environmental concerns are raised about the fab, since nasty chemicals are sometimes found in the river the plant uses, the official response is always "the exact process is confidential, we cannot allow external inspectors inside, but we can pinky swear we conform to all regulations via self audits" and the government rolls with that as the unofficial response is "stop bothering us about the environment or we relocate production to Asia and you're left with a bunch of unemployed engineers and tax hole in your city coffers".