Topic: The Environment
Is government preventing sustainable practices? A commentary on obstacles to sustainable practices.by Gavin Kitchens
(libertarian)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Politicians and bureaucratsare quick to pat themselves on the back for implementing environmental regulations ostensibly meant to reduce or eliminate harm to human health and the environment. My experience in federal (as well as state and local) contracting is that the government is a supreme hindrance to establishing sustainable environmental practices (or green practices) in the workplace.
Note the extensive use of paper in the workplace. We certainly have the capacity to reduce the use of paper and, indeed, to go essentially paperless. Why the delay in implementing this process. Well, I've observed that the government simply does not allow it. Public contracts require the extensive submittal of multiple hard copy documents - proposals, plans, reports, etc. Local governments require the submittal of project drawings in hard copy before they will issue permits or licenses required to perform work. Numerous regulations require contractors (as well as many non-public contractors and service providers) to retain hard copies of documents, including medical records, closure documentation, financial data, and more, regardless of the safety or security of their electronic storage. This process runs down from government officials to contractors to subcontractors to general vendors. The growth in government (e.g., the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) effectively ensures that nearly all business is subject to hard copy records and submittals in some form or other. It is effectively impossible to go paperless, regardless of a firm's capacity or willingness to do so. The Federal Paperwork Reduction Act (now over ten years old) does not seem to have been a particularly effective law.
I would analogize this to the previously planned conversions from English units of measurement to the international metric system. The U.S.government, at various intervals, has repeatedly committed to making this change. They cannot seem to make any headway. Industry and research would greatly benefit. Indeed, the globalmarket should effectively make this inevitable. Any firm that attempts to make this change, however, will cause themselves a great deal of trouble. Since we cannot submit required plans, drawings, reports, etc. that use metric units to the government to document work or receive permits or authorization, we essentially cannot make such a change and continue to disadvantage ourselves in the global sphere.
These are important lessons. Progress on environmental sustainability likely would be advanced in a market economy because the economic, not to mention environmental benefits, are many. Such changes, unfortunately, face severe obstacles in the form of bureaucrats. The pace of such progress likely cannot surpass the pace of progress in government, which is sadly very slow.
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