Saving Energy, Growing Jobs How Environmental Protection Promotes Economic Growth, Competition, Profitability and Innovation

by Goldstein, David B.; Snowe, Olympia

• ISBN13: 9780972002165
• ISBN10: 0972002162
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-30
• Publisher: Bay Tree Publishing

Summary

The idea that we must choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy is a myth, says David Goldstein. Not only do well-conceived environmental regulations create more jobs, in the long run they contribute to more efficient designs and less expensive products. Standing between us and a cleaner, more prosperous society is the resistance of economic incumbents and a misplaced ideological opposition to any kind of regulation, even though it might prove beneficial.

Author Biography

David B. Goldstein, Ph.D., is Energy Program Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgements	p. xxiii
Introduction	p. xxviii
Energy Efficiency and the Economy	p. 1
The Critical Role of Energy Efficiency in the Economy	p. 4
Energy Use Reduction
Environmental Policies Generate Cost Reductions
Opposition to Energy Efficiency
Establish More Competitive Markets
Direct Success in Energy Efficiency	p. 27
Early Resistance to Energy Efficiency
The Refrigerator Story
Other Energy-Efficiency Opportunities
How Far Can We Go with Efficiency?
Enhanced Innovation-Energy Efficiency's Unexpected Success	p. 63
Nonenergy Benefits
Innovation, Process Improvement, and Cost Reduction
Overcoming Barriers to Innovation
National Economic Development Policy and the Environment
Environmental Protection, Economic Barriers, and Economic Development	p. 97
Economic Fundamentalism-The Use of Economics as a Religion Rather Than a Science	p. 100
What Is Economic Fundamentalism?
How Economic Theory Serves as a Political Force
How Critical Assumptions of Economic Theory Are Violated in Practice
The Need for Regulation
How Markets Actually Work
Lessons from California's Failed Experiment in "Free Markets" for Electricity	p. 135
The Road to Failure
What Actually Happened-Myth Versus Reality
The Consequences of the Restructuring Experiment
The True Causes of the California Energy Crisis
How Markets Fail	p. 154
What Prevents Expected Results
Market Barriers
Market Failures
Human Failures
Institutional Failures: Trade Associations and the Politics of Environmental Protection
Factors for Market Success
The Politics of Environmentalism	p. 183
Myths of the Anti-Environmentalists	p. 186
The Myth of Independent Objective Analysis
The Myths about Environmentalists
The Consequences of the Anti-Environmentalist Myths
Myths of the Environmentalists	p. 206
The Greedy Corporation Myth
The "Bad People" Myth
The "Small Is Beautiful" Myth
Legitimate Concerns of Business and Environmental Interests	p. 217
Business's Concerns About New Regulation
Reasons Why Business Distrusts Environmentalists
Environmentalists' Concerns About Business
The Need for Better Communication
What Truly Motivates Anti-Environmentalists	p. 231
A Story of Energy Efficiency and Global Warming
The Influence of Economic and Ideological Incumbency
Who Writes the Regulations
Government Versus Private-Sector Regulation
Well-Designed Environmental Policies	p. 247
Current Environmental Policies
Future Environmental Policies
Where Do We Go from Here?	p. 266
Environmental Policy Promotes Economic Growth
Current Barriers to Environmental Policies
How to Transform the Political Debate
Incentives and Regulation
Myths and Realities in California's Experiment in Electricity Restructuring	p. 283
Huge Growth of Demand for Electricity
Environmentalists and State Bureaucrats Blocked New Power Plant Construction
Greedy Utilities Used Restrucuting as a Plot
The Flaws of Restructuring Were Clear to All
Restructuring Did Not Go Far Enough
The "Genius of the Market" Will Solve Everything
Notes	p. 308
Bibliography	p. 319
Index	p. 326
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