Going for the Green
10 November 2007
Editor, The New York Post
To the Editor:
Jonah Goldberg wisely advises suspicion whenever corporations parade their green sensibilities ("NBC's green fraud," November 10). Public displays of concern for the environment too often mask corporations' goal of using regulations to fatten their bottom lines by restricting consumer choice.
For example, consider Weyerhaeuser Co.'s vigorous support for regulations protecting spotted owls. As documented by economist Bruce Yandle, by significantly curbing logging in public forests, these regulations raise the prices that Weyerhaeuser gets for the timber it logs from its own forests.* Green indeed.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Bruce Yandle, "Bootleggers and Baptists in Retrospect," Regulation, Vol. 22, Fall 1999.
Editor, The New York Post
To the Editor:
Jonah Goldberg wisely advises suspicion whenever corporations parade their green sensibilities ("NBC's green fraud," November 10). Public displays of concern for the environment too often mask corporations' goal of using regulations to fatten their bottom lines by restricting consumer choice.
For example, consider Weyerhaeuser Co.'s vigorous support for regulations protecting spotted owls. As documented by economist Bruce Yandle, by significantly curbing logging in public forests, these regulations raise the prices that Weyerhaeuser gets for the timber it logs from its own forests.* Green indeed.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Bruce Yandle, "Bootleggers and Baptists in Retrospect," Regulation, Vol. 22, Fall 1999.
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 8:33pm