“Air quality has improved dramatically over the past decades, and air quality will continue to improve under the existing standards,” said Howard Feldman, director of regulatory affairs for the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for the oil industry. “The current review of health studies has not identified compelling evidence for more stringent standards, and current standards are protective of public health.”
via www.nytimes.com
Ignoring for the moment the obvious conflict of interest, this raising an interesting question. In modeling the effects of a tightening of emissions regulations, should we treat the regulation as a one-time shock to a dynamic system that puts us on a new path to a better steady state (as implied by this quote), or do we need a series of interventions that prevents reversion to a previous path?
Just wondering.
