Governments are some of the largest polluters in the world. Any given special interest is lobbying for the thing they want at the expense of the general public.

Governments are some of the largest polluters in the world. Any given special interest is lobbying for the thing they want at the expense of the general public. Is there something that makes pollution different than e.g. professional licensing capture that increases the cost of trade services and therefore causes people to be priced out of making safety-related repairs? Or to put it the other way, any reason the likes of public transit systems should be able to operate whatsoever when they produce non-zero amounts of brake dust and CO2 instead of making everybody walk everywhere?