Political Environmentalism Going behind the Green Curtain

In Political Environmentalism, Terry Anderson and his contributors show how environmental special interests have indeed provided the high moral ground for economic special interests who stand to gain from legislation that hampers competition. The book documents a range of examples of how politics and environmentalism mix to produce strange bedfellows and perverse results. It shows for instance, how clean air and water legislation based on technology standards actually results in dirtierair and highercosts to consumers. It tells how wilderness designations and Superfund sites are usually determined more by economic interests than by any other factor. And it reveals how the Endangered Species Act puts property up for grabs in the political arena-doing little to save species but consuming considerable resources in the process.

Terry L. Anderson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; executive director, Political Economy Research Center, Bozeman, Montana; and professor emeritus, Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Montana State University