Environmental Law: Clean Water Act
Today, in class, the professor (who looks like a slightly agitated elf) had us work through the text of the Clean Water Act by designing it ourselves. Now, we didn’t actually design it ourselves. Basically, we proposed ideas and he shot down everything that wasn’t aligned with the actual clean water act as being ‘absurd,’ ‘complicated,’ or ‘unrealistic.’ Then, by default, whatever was left was the Clean Water Act. It was a little condescending that he suggested that we had designed the Clean Water Act ourselves when most of our suggestions flew wide of Congress’ actual methods enshrined in the statute.
I made a few suggestions, but I’m getting used to my ideas not being taken seriously in that class. Without discussion or argument, most of my ideas seem to be shot down as being ‘absurd.’ I disagree with the way that the Clean Water Act is handled and so I thought it might be fun to engage in the project that the frustrated elf wanted us to engage in. I’m going to design the Clean Water Act the way I think it should be designed. If I were a Congressperson, this would be my proposal:
My CWA:
Goal - No pollution in the water. Is it unreachable? Probably in practical terms, yes. We shouldn’t tolerate some level though as the goal for the same reason that we don’t tolerate the police having a goal of some allowable level of crime. Ideally, we would want the police to eliminate all crime, but we recognize it isn’t (broadly speaking) feasible. Instead, what aim for is a lot like a curve I used to see in Calculus class. It starts high and drops quickly, but the slope of the curve gets gentler and gentler until (as we approach infinity) it becomes almost parallel to zero.
How implemented - Create a series of ratchet-like goals. Environmental experts (i.e., the EPA) would decide actual dates and figures but this would be an example:
By 2010, plants may emit 100 megatons of green radioactive goo.
By 2015, plants may emit 90 megatons of green radioactive goo.
By 2020, plants may emit 80 megatons of green radioactive goo, and so on.
How violations are discovered - government monitoring. Right now, the CWA seems to have a strong emphasis on self-reporting (in the same way as is our income tax system). But can we really trust people to self-report accurately? It seems unlikely, particularly when a lie would help them out monetarily. My analogy would be a person self-reporting the proceeds of his burglary on his income tax form. It isn’t likely to happen through self-reporting.
How enforced - Punitive sanctions. People in class kept talking about providing incentives to help companies raise their technology rates, and providing tax credits to companies that meet the required standards. Forgive my language here, but that’s about as close to corporate coddling as my bullshit meter can go. We don’t pay people to follow the law. We expect them to do it, punish them for noncompliance, and reward them for going above and beyond the call of duty. Can you imagine a system where the police didn’t lock you away for murder, but instead paid you not to kill people? Such a notion ought to be a little on the bizarre side for most people. Incentives should be part of a good system, but not for meeting the requirements of law. Incentives should be distributed for people doing more than what is required. For instance, if a company can lower its emission of green radioactive goo to 80 megatons in the first year of the program, it ought to be encouraged to do so, since it isn’t required to do so until 2020 CE.
Who enforces - Department of Justice Criminal Prosecutors. I wouldn’t treat this as a civil matter, the way it is commonly treated. I would make noncompliance a criminal offense. Here is my reasoning: 1) Congress is within its delegated power to pass a statute like this, 2) Congress, using its power, did pass a statute like this, 3) By passing such a statute and publishing it in the appropriate places, all citizens were given notice that releasing 105 megatons of green radioactive goo in 2010 was illegal, 4) Company X knew releasing 105 megatons of green radioactive goo was illegal and went ahead and did it anyway, and 5) the interests Congress meant to protect by making the emission of green radioactive goo were harmed. We shouldn’t be punishing companies with slap on the wrist fines. We should be prosecuting executives, confiscating assets to clean up the damage the company caused, and throwing offenders into the federal penitentiary system. Let me assure you that having a corporate executive arrested by federal marshals (preferably while at work), handcuffed and dragged to the station, convicted and thrown into the general penitentiary with murderers and druglords would be good for the corporate culture of America. Who knows? It might encourage a few executives to have some moral rectitude installed into their business-oriented minds.
That’s my Clean Water Act, and I for one find it vastly superior to the one we ‘designed’ in class today.
I made a few suggestions, but I’m getting used to my ideas not being taken seriously in that class. Without discussion or argument, most of my ideas seem to be shot down as being ‘absurd.’ I disagree with the way that the Clean Water Act is handled and so I thought it might be fun to engage in the project that the frustrated elf wanted us to engage in. I’m going to design the Clean Water Act the way I think it should be designed. If I were a Congressperson, this would be my proposal:
My CWA:
Goal - No pollution in the water. Is it unreachable? Probably in practical terms, yes. We shouldn’t tolerate some level though as the goal for the same reason that we don’t tolerate the police having a goal of some allowable level of crime. Ideally, we would want the police to eliminate all crime, but we recognize it isn’t (broadly speaking) feasible. Instead, what aim for is a lot like a curve I used to see in Calculus class. It starts high and drops quickly, but the slope of the curve gets gentler and gentler until (as we approach infinity) it becomes almost parallel to zero.
How implemented - Create a series of ratchet-like goals. Environmental experts (i.e., the EPA) would decide actual dates and figures but this would be an example:
By 2010, plants may emit 100 megatons of green radioactive goo.
By 2015, plants may emit 90 megatons of green radioactive goo.
By 2020, plants may emit 80 megatons of green radioactive goo, and so on.
How violations are discovered - government monitoring. Right now, the CWA seems to have a strong emphasis on self-reporting (in the same way as is our income tax system). But can we really trust people to self-report accurately? It seems unlikely, particularly when a lie would help them out monetarily. My analogy would be a person self-reporting the proceeds of his burglary on his income tax form. It isn’t likely to happen through self-reporting.
How enforced - Punitive sanctions. People in class kept talking about providing incentives to help companies raise their technology rates, and providing tax credits to companies that meet the required standards. Forgive my language here, but that’s about as close to corporate coddling as my bullshit meter can go. We don’t pay people to follow the law. We expect them to do it, punish them for noncompliance, and reward them for going above and beyond the call of duty. Can you imagine a system where the police didn’t lock you away for murder, but instead paid you not to kill people? Such a notion ought to be a little on the bizarre side for most people. Incentives should be part of a good system, but not for meeting the requirements of law. Incentives should be distributed for people doing more than what is required. For instance, if a company can lower its emission of green radioactive goo to 80 megatons in the first year of the program, it ought to be encouraged to do so, since it isn’t required to do so until 2020 CE.
Who enforces - Department of Justice Criminal Prosecutors. I wouldn’t treat this as a civil matter, the way it is commonly treated. I would make noncompliance a criminal offense. Here is my reasoning: 1) Congress is within its delegated power to pass a statute like this, 2) Congress, using its power, did pass a statute like this, 3) By passing such a statute and publishing it in the appropriate places, all citizens were given notice that releasing 105 megatons of green radioactive goo in 2010 was illegal, 4) Company X knew releasing 105 megatons of green radioactive goo was illegal and went ahead and did it anyway, and 5) the interests Congress meant to protect by making the emission of green radioactive goo were harmed. We shouldn’t be punishing companies with slap on the wrist fines. We should be prosecuting executives, confiscating assets to clean up the damage the company caused, and throwing offenders into the federal penitentiary system. Let me assure you that having a corporate executive arrested by federal marshals (preferably while at work), handcuffed and dragged to the station, convicted and thrown into the general penitentiary with murderers and druglords would be good for the corporate culture of America. Who knows? It might encourage a few executives to have some moral rectitude installed into their business-oriented minds.
That’s my Clean Water Act, and I for one find it vastly superior to the one we ‘designed’ in class today.
posted by The Academian | 12:35 PM
2 Comments:
D is totally an angry elf and he doesn't ever take anything seriously but the exact phraseology he has in his head. And then he gets mad when we can't read his mind and jumps up and down like Rumplestiltskin. Turns out that class is not a discussion on how to create effective policy (as it should be) but on how to make sort-of effective policy.
I agree, entirely, DD. I'm not saying that the CWA isn't an effective policy. It is, in a tobacco-road sort of way. It gets the job done in a 'C+' fashion. It's enough to pass, but not something to write home about. Whether my way is right or not, there should be an over-arching architecture to a statute that gets the job done in a way that ought to merit at least a 'B+' if not an 'A'.
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