Clear Skies

Juan Non-Volokh hasposted about the Clear Skies proposal. Must read for those who are interested in the environment:

The claims that Clear Skies would allow for greater emissions than current law are based upon highly questionable assumptions about the effectiveness of ordering additional rounds of emission reductions under current law through the regulatory process. Compared against any set of realistic assumptions, however, Clear Skies would clearly result in greater emissions reductions. Still, some environmental activists would claim these reductions are not enough, and oppose any legislation that does not include caps on carbon dioxide -- which is not currently regulated under the Clean Air Act at all.

The tendancy of environmentalists to refuse any compromise is, in my opinion, as big of a threat to the environment as any corporate polluter. We need to take measures to safegaurd our environment, but there are many good things in the world and compromise is necessary. I am willing to listen to reasons why Clear Skies is a bad idea. I am willing to look at other measures. When the opponants of Clear Skies seem to be opposed not because it is not good, but because it is not perfect I start to tune them out however. Obviously one of the dangers is that this sort of crying wolf (the arsenic scandal was similar in some ways) debases their ability to draw attention to actual problems.