Poorly devised regulation lets firms pollute with abandon
A recent study finds that firms at risk of punishment cut their exhaust by 7% when the government is watching
ATHLETES DON’T get advance warning of drug tests. Police don’t share schedules of planned raids. Yet America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not seem convinced of the value of surprise in deterring bad behaviour. Every year it publishes a list of dates, spaced at six-day intervals, on which it will require state and local agencies to provide data on concentrations of harmful fine particulate matter (PM2.5), such as soot or cement dust.
This article appeared in the Graphic detail section of the print edition under the headline “We were expecting you”
Graphic detail September 4th 2021
From the September 4th 2021 edition
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