Role of Government Intervention in Environmental Issues

Essay by Bunny WailerA+, October 1996

download word file, 7 pages 4.9

Paper #1: Role of Government Intervention in Environmental Issues

In environmental cases, a policy framework is sometimes more

effective when there is less government intervention. As the level of

government intervention diminishes, this allows more flexibility for

corporations to achieve efficiency. Furthermore the traditional command and

control approach has proven to be costly, bureaucratic and often inefficient.

It is important to address the fact that there are numerous benefits that

can be achieved for both policy makers and industries, if a policy framework

is based on market forces. However it is important that there is a need for

some government intervention, but should be as minimal as possible.

I have chosen to examine the article from the New York Times

entitled RU.S. Seeking Options of Pollution RulesS. Although pollution is

detrimental to our environment, you have to take into account that it is

almost impossible to entirely prevent pollution. This is scientifically

impossible and it would have severely negative economic impact on the

industries. So the core issue becomes the fact no matter what, there will

always be pollution, as long as these industries exist. So we should focus

on how we can minimize this and yet at the same time have an efficient market

system? Furthermore, we should also focus on how we can accomplish this so

that sustainable growth and development can take place. So there is

definitely a need for some form of government intervention to enforce and

monitor this. Reason being that there is always an element of equality that

has to be enforced, when dealing with cases such as this. For instance,

larger corporations may have an advantage over smaller corporation, since

they have stronger influence on politicians and lobbyists. So the

governmentUs role should be to ensure that all industries (regardless size

and/or power)...