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Contents
If a person has an economic interest in protecting the environment, he or she is motivated to keep the environment clean. A good example of this principle in action is tradable pollution rights. Companies are issued "rights" to cause a certain level of pollution. If they do not create that level of pollution, they may sell those rights to another company. The original company is motivated to reduce pollution output so they may sell the rights, and the purchaser is motivated to reduce their output so they do not need to buy rights from others.
Private property rights and private conservation efforts are other key parts of this free market environmental philosophy. "The Tragedy of the Commons," is an economic term that describes the tendency for public lands to be less well-maintained than their privately-owned counterparts. A private landowner who charges people for access to his property for hunting or logging has an economic interest in ensuring that the land is not over-hunted or over-cut. No one has a specific responsibility to ensure that these things do not happen on publicly-owned land.
"Enviro-capitalists" alone cannot achieve environmental quality. However, when market demands exist for products and amenities related to the environment, an entrepreneurial approach can offer a valuable alternative to regulation. More and more, consumers are looking for products that are environmentally friendly. Where there is profit, the products will come.
Many free-market groups work on issues related to the environment, and there are some groups specifically dedicated to free-market environmentalism. In the future, you can expect to hear more from them as people look for more common-sense ways to protect the environment without government intrusion. Below are some policy reports that will give you an overview of this important topic.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is the leading proponent of free-market environmentalism. CEI believes that where individual property rights exist in environmental resources, the environment is most likely to be protected. They are dedicated to reducing regulation and reframing the debate on environmental issues.
CEI's major effort is the Environmental Studies Program. Through research under this program, CEI challenges the conventional wisdom of the environmental movement and furthers the idea that the free-market can effectively manage the environment.
Hightlights of the book True State of the Planet by Ronald Bailey can be found here along with their Environmental Briefing Book for Congressional Candidates.
The Center for Private Conservation is another project of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Through case studies and other research reports, CPC looks at successful private conservation programs and institutions that help and hinder private efforts. Some examples of their work include:
Political Economy Research Center
PERC is one of the pioneers of free-market environmentalism. They were founded on the principles that private property rights encourage stewardship of resources, government subsidies often degrade the environment, market incentives spur individuals to conserve resources and protect environmental quality, and polluters should be liable for the harm they cause others.
PERC associates Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal have authored a new book, Enviro-Capitalists that shows what individuals have done to improve the environment while earning a profit.
Environmental education is an important issue at PERC and they have published many papers to dispel myths about the environment and disseminate more accurate information.
The Heartland Institute gets free-market research into the hands of editors, reporters, and state-elected officials from New York to California.
Earth Day '96: A Guide to Saving the Planet was widely distributed on Earth Day '96 to separate truth from myth on a wide range of environmental issues, including recycling, oil depletion, global warming, chlorine, and second-hand smoke. Over 140,000 copies were distributed across the country
Heartland President Joseph L. Bast, Peter J. Hill, and Richard C. Rue co-authored Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism, which sets the record straight on many widespread environmental myths and proposes a common-sense, free-market environmental agenda.
The Eco-Sanity Report is Heartland's review of the latest environmental research from around the country. All of the reports reviewed here are available from PolicyFax, their document faxback service.
Cato's Natural Resource Studies director, Jerry Taylor has been very active in promoting environmental regulatory reform. Many of Cato's policy ideas were followed by the 104th Congress.
Jerry Taylor discusses the "tragedy of the commons" and privatization of enivronmental resources in this speech before the Natural Resources Defense Counsel entitled Environmentalism and Liberty: Where the Twain Might Meet
The Cato Handbook for the 105th Congress contains a chapter on environmental protection. The chapter discusses and alternative strategy for reform and how economic growth is an important component of environmental protection.
Cato recently republished Through Green-Colored Glasses: Environmentalism Reconsidered by Wilfred Beckerman. The book debunks the myths sponsored by radical environmentalists about a wide range of topics, from global warming to resource depletion.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is committed to delivering the highest quality and most reliable research on Michigan issues. As a state-based group, education is one of their primary issues, and most of their information applies to rest of the country.
Two recent commentaries by Mackinac scholars discuss environmental conservation:
Reason Magazine / Reason Foundation
Reason is the premier libertarian magazine and one of the best Web sites for libertarian commentary and investigative reports.
The May 1996 issue of Reason was dedicated to environmental issues. Evolutionary Ecology: A new environmental vision by Lynn Scarlett discusses the current shift of environmental policy away from government control.
The Reason Foundation for Public Policy has an environmental studies program that seeks to harness the marketplace to solve many of our current environmental problems.
The Independent Institute publishes commentary and policy reports on a wide variety of issues.
Market-Based Environmentalism and the Free Market: They're Not the Same has caused a bit of a stir for its bold attack on most free-market environmentalist programs as mere facades for the traditional command-and-control approach of government mandates. This article was from the Winter 1997 issue of the Independent Review.
Laissez Faire offers a large selection of books on libertarian issues and free-market economics.
The Environmental Politics page offers a large variety of books on the subject of free-market environmentalism.
IHS provides educational seminars and information for graduate and undergraduate students interested in liberty.
In the Fall 1992 issue of Humane Studies Review, Robert Taylor discusses market failures and the proposals of free-market environmentalists in Economics, Ecology, and Exchange: Free Market Environmentalism.
Free-market environmentalism is being studied and proposed by many other groups. Below are some highlights:
As part of their Issues '96: The Candidate's Briefing Book, John Shannahan exposes some of the myths of environmental destruction and proposes common-sense reforms based on markets and private ownership in his chapter on the environment.
Shannahan also authored How To Talk About the Environment, a set of talking points about reform.
Cascade has embarked on a bold new project called the Oregon Growth PLAN (People, Land And Nature). This plan lays out a new strategy for growth management based on free-markets and private property rights. John Charles, former executive director of the Oregon Environmental Council is the project manager.
The Oregonian published this op-ed piece by John Charles, Let's Unleash Growth's Benefits, which introduces citizens of Oregon to the plan.
The Democratic Leadership Committee's policy arm supports some market-based solutions to environmental problems, but still believe that the federal government need to enforce environmental regulations. This set of talking points on environmental protection explains their viewpoint.
Second Generation: A New Strategy For Environmental Protection by Debra S. Knopman expands on those talking points. An executive summary is available in HTML and the complete text is available in Adobe Acrobat format.
Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment
From the Fall 1996 issue of FREE Perspectives, several articles address "the tragedy of the commons," the concept that shared common spaces are not maintained as well as privately owned spaces.
The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
The Center is dedicated to promoting the concept of Wise Use. Overcoming Ideology by Ron Arnold expands more on this topic.
Progress and Freedom Foundation
Environmentalism for a Dynamic World discusses needed environmental reform and some of the ways free-markets can work to protect natural resources.
National Center for Policy Analysis
New Environmentalism outlines a new public policy strategy for environmental issues. It focuses on incentives and private property rights as the foundation for this policy.
Progressive Environmentalism: A Pro-Human, Pro-Science, Pro-Free Enterprise Agenda for Change discusses the agenda required to implement common-sense reforms of environmental regulation.
The Electronic Drummer is a newsletter published by the Thoreau Institute. They have compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions about free-market environmentalism.
"Bambi and Business Sense" by J.D. Tuccille
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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