Economy over Environment? Why Not Have Both?
Nicolas Loris /
It’s a common misconception that a tradeoff exists between economic growth and environmental cleanliness. For decades Gallup has been conducting a poll asking about this very tradeoff. According to its latest one, “53 percent said economic growth should be the nation’s top priority, even if the environment has to suffer. Just 38 percent put their priority on environmental protection, even if it limited growth. The share of Americans favoring the environment over growth is the lowest since 1984.”
In 1990, the results were 71 percent preferred protection of the environment even at the chance of curbing economic growth compared to only 19 percent suggesting economic growth should be the priority. Clearly this is indicative of the current state of our economy but the trend in the Gallup chart shows more people favoring the economy. This year’s results should send a strong signal to Congress that now (but not ever) is not the time to implement policies that would raise the price of energy and stunt economic growth, especially when these policies produce negligible or detrimental environmental effects. Legislation that aims to cut CO2 reduces resources available to grow our economy and become more energy and environmentally efficient. John Tierney from the New York Times says,
In dozens of studies, researchers identified Kuznets curves for a variety of environmental problems. There are exceptions to the trend, especially in countries with inept governments and poor systems of property rights, but in general, richer is eventually greener. As incomes go up, people often focus first on cleaning up their drinking water, and then later on air pollutants like sulfur dioxide. As their wealth grows, people consume more energy, but they move to more efficient and cleaner sources.”