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ENGLISH 2010 Joote E. Hunde Professor: Gary Howard SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

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Pollution and Government Policy
Re-think public policy, The case of Mega Power Inc. of Cincinnati

The purpose of this brief paper is to offer a logical , practical, pragmatic reason for the need to rethink public policy and law in order to address environmental pollution, climate challenges and economic deterioration by examining Americas Domestic policy in government programs and regulations that affect the economy of the country . When politicians and economists talk about global warming and the potential global conict that they say will cause wars and the immigration of millions, they usually are talking about the underdevelopment countries Mean while , the same group of people , namely politicians and economist argue against their own idea when they say limiting pollution will increase the unemployment rate in the country. this is clear in MegaPower Inc. scenarios spending $4 Billion to save $2 Billion and EPAs regulation to limit mercury emission to one pound per gigawatt of electricity generated . As indicated in this scenario, it appears that by law , Mercury emission must be limited to one pound for each Gigawatt electricity generated to protect the environment

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but the economic cost to the companies who generate jobs in the country by employing workers is very high if EPAs regulations are implemented or enforced by the government .this is where the debate starts Having this fact in mind , asks ourselves whether MegaPower Inc. pay $4 Billion to upgrade its plant to the level acceptable to EPA to recover $2 Billion worth mercury over the life time of its plant?. should they upgrade or should use there grand fathered clause?.well,since they are want to upgrade the plant on their own ,keeping the plant as is not an opinion To nd the right answer for the above question ,the following points need to be considered -should humans continue polluting the environment -should this generation knowingly cause the future generation for their convenience of todays? as explained chapter 16 page(421) it is clear that policy making is heavily depended not only on the above fundamental questions but on the fundamental of interdependent of all functors such as domestic policy, international relations, economic and political issues.to put is precisely, MegaPower Inc. is forced to follow EPAs new standard explained in the scenario described by Environment protection agency (EPA),every functor described affect the compony in such a way it involves lager corporation like

health care industry how directly deal with health care, the politicians and the economists.in addition this mater also affects tax polices and others social maters that will result in an intended consequences that may affect the opportunity cost of MegaPowers and the country in general . for example, if EPA prevails, MegaPower inc. will be forced to either shut down their company which directly affects tax income to the local and federal government and employment, that is the base of government revenue source.if locale and federal government lose their revenue sources because of high employment rate that was affected by regulations such as the EPA new standard , then, the government lose its ability to support the senior citizens who are fully depend on the government budget. farther more,the economic hardship caused by high unemployment rate brings all sorts of political challenges as poverty deepens its grip among those who are under employed. simply put,people will lose there benets that they usually receive from the government, like police, schools and other government related serves suffer adding more unexpected problems that are hard reverse for many years to come.this is basically means that social services will decline since the issue that started with MegaPower will expand to other service sector similar to MegaPower inc. This situation also involves not only large nical and insurance companies but also political entrepreneur who will jump in the situation to steer the political direction of the

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country toward to their agenda. for example, the creation of Tea party movement and the impact this party had on the republican incumbent senators was the outcome of such scenario even though the over whole situation that brought the Tea party in to political stage was not directly linked to environmental policies. it is also worth nothing that policy making is not necessary depends on the interest of the American people or on environmentalists agenda alone but its often resulted from the hard political campaign that the powerful and rich men make to protect their prots. Weather MegaPower Inc.should pay $4 billion to recover $2 billion worth mercury over the span of its corporations life time ,its important that they invest their money to limit the pollution that they cause the environment that using the money for propaganda campaigns and nance politicians and political groups that fan the ames of fear and paranoia to defeat common sense. Mean while, the government also need to understand that its role is not only making rules and regulation but limit arguments by being a part of the solution by either subsidizing those corporations who are willing to cut pollution to the desires level or by giving them tax brakes over certain time of company life time. If EPA prevail with its demand to force corporation such as MegaPower inc, to upgrade their plants to new standards,the outcome will involve local and national election which its result will be the rise of new political entity similar to Tea party that

may take over and change the entire system and implement new law that give priority to economic development over environment protection.As its stands now, America stands as number one country in the world when it comes to protecting its environment and wild life.

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MegaPower inc. can address that there is many other factors that cause health problems other than mercury pollution. for example,work place injuries, regular health problems and other terminal disease are out there naturally and they too contribute to health problems that also affect employment growth and health care. mega power inc. can also engage in research to possibly nd butter way to generate energy and minimize the level of the pollution that its plant may cause,basically they can promote a culture of new thinking where politicians, economics and the voters can focus not only on job creation or on pollution but on ways of compromising and comes up with new policies that could dramatically reduced un employment and pollution at the same times.!

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Environmentalist, politicians and economist need to understand that our relationship with environment is real and that everything we do must be inuenced by those ideals.if everyone comes to such understanding there will be so many choices where many decision and policies can be made.

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