Re: Deregulation of State imposed Environmental Regulations
Jay,
You might consider there is a fringe on both sides though. I agree with your comments though about how these things become "a spiraling pile of dung" . . .
I actually have a decent perspective to contribute on the "other" side of this discussion. I grew up in Los Angeles. I was born downtown. When I was a kid my lungs hurt all summer long. Anytime we were outside playing (when weren't we) and especially when swimming or something vigorous, my lungs would hurt on every deep breath. The only way that you could limit the pain was to limit the depth of your breath.
Also, we are ringed by 10,000+ ft. mountains. The closest are less than 20 miles away. It used to be that most days you literally could not see them
Now most days they are a beautiful backdrop to what is really a very beautiful area. As a result of many the measures taken things have definitely improved here.
Also, in the early '90s, electronically controlled diesel fuel systems were just coming of age. I worked at the local Caterpillar Dealer and I was part of some significant testing and development of some optional stuff. Part of this work required some detailed emission testing. Weeellllll, a funny thing kept showing up whenever we held the engines at a steady state for more than a minute. For 59 seconds the engine would run at 4 grams/hp/hour NOx, then . . . at second number 60 the NOx would jump up to about 11 and stay there
It is fairly common knowledge that diesels run their best efficiency at around 11 grams, but being the naive guys we were we called the factory to report this anomaly, and the response was "that's normal, never mind . . . click". As part of our development work we had an insider and he sat us down and said, something like "you know all of our work is covered by a non-disclosure agreement." (the result of this story is in the public domain now, so I have no reservations discussing anymore) He continued, "but also our agreement requires that we share all relevant technical information. What you are seeing is what we call the 'ceiling map'. It is designed to put the engine into an economical mode while under a more rural load profile." Well to make this long story short Cat, Cummins, Detroit Diesel, Volvo, Mack and International were all subsequently sued by the EPA for "tampering", by selling engines that operated outside their emissions certified modes. You see . . . the Federal Transient Procedure for Heavy Duty engines has multiple load and speed points, each lasting . . . 60 seconds. The manufacturers argument was "no, this 'mode' was tested", and the response was "get out of here, 1 second out of 60 is not representative". Which of course is true.
While there is also another side to
this story, it taught me that a Libertarian approach to some issues would never work as the public would never know, and competition would drive these types of "invisible" innovations.
With that said, I cannot tolerate legislation based on emotion. And I personally believe most of the current envirnmental hype is just that, hype and emotion.
