Describe the challenges associated with the regulatory approach to environmental concerns.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Several problems suggest that the regulatory approach to environmental concerns will prove inadequate over the long term. First, it underestimates the influence that business can have in establishing the law. The Corporate Automotive Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards provide a good example of how this can occur. A reasonable account of this law suggests that the public very clearly expressed a political goal of improving air quality by improving automobile fuel efficiency goals (and thereby reducing automobile emissions). However, the automobile industry was able to use its lobbying influence to exempt light trucks and SUVs from these standards.
Second, this approach also underestimates the ability of business to influence consumer choice. To conclude that business fulfills its environmental responsibility when it responds to the environmental demands of consumers is to underestimate the role that business can play in shaping public opinion. The best example would be the advertising industry. Assuming that business is not going to stop advertising its products or lobbying government, this model of corporate environmental responsibility is likely to prove inadequate for protecting the natural environment.
Further, if we rely on the law to protect the environment, environmental protection will extend only as far as the law extends. Yet, most environmental issues, pollution problems especially, do not respect legal jurisdictions. Similarly, national regulations will be ineffective for international environmental challenges.
Finally, and perhaps most troubling from an environmental standpoint, this regulatory model assumes that economic growth is environmentally and ethically benign. Regulations establish side constraints on business's pursuit of profits and, as long as they remain within those constraints, accept as ethically legitimate whatever road to profitability management chooses.