A new (or old) industrial trade secret for polluting

[Crazy Dave]

When a factory is applying for pollution permits, they always overstate the predictions and calculations of how much water or air pollution the factory will produce. Up to five times as much in some cases then when or if new laws and regulations are created they can always say, "we've cut down our factory's emissions by over 50% because we love our community and the environment" without actually cutting back on anything.

Such a simple idea that's so easy to get away with.

[dcfirefighter]

1. I've long supported pollution taxes over straight regulations

with, of course, no grandfathering of old polluters.

Taxes could be assessed on a per unit mass basis, or a community wide (annually decreasing) ceiling could be set, and units of pollution could be auctioned.

Generally, old polluters are allowed, while new polluters must meet higher standards. This generally means that the old polluter stays in business, and the new polluter never comes on line. Pollution taxes would mean that the old polluter would become less and less viable, while the new polluter would become more and more viable.

[Crazy Dave]

2. Don't look now but...

...the Bush administration just did the same thing with the nation's deficit. They knew about where they'd be when they made their projection but they overstated and bloated it. Now that it came out below their "prediction", they're all chest thumping and are on every talk show saying, "see how great the tax cuts worked".
The deficit still remains at a historic all time high but hey, who's paying any attention to that?