While searching for article ideas, I stumbled across a headline that caught my eye: “Kennedy advocates free-market solutions to pollution.” (The Kennedy referred to in the title is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is an environmental lawyer. ) I spend as little time as possible making myself aware of the Kennedy clan, and thought that, unknown to me, perhaps one of them actually has some sense.
The article started with some promise:
Kennedy said the choice between the environment and the economy is a false one. “A true free market encourages efficiency, encourages the elimination of waste, and pollution is waste,” he said…
So far, so good. But then Kennedy went on to cite
several environmental laws “designed to restore the free market” — including the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act.
According to Kennedy, statutes that prohibit individuals from using their property as they choose is a “free market solution.” Freedom means the absence of government coercion. A free market means the economic freedom to produce and trade values as one judges best. This is precisely what the above acts prohibit.
Kennedy’s Orwellian oratory did not end there:
Saying that polluters are subsidized because they devalue the common resources—air, water, land, wildlife—that belong to the people, as well as by government exemptions, Kennedy outlined the use of the public trust doctrine…
The “public trust doctrine” holds that certain resources, such as air and water, should not be privately owned, but held in trust by government for the use of all. This doctrine is the cause of polluted water and air. A true free market solution–the recognition and protection of property rights–can and does lead to clean water and air.
Most individuals understand that they cannot damage their neighbor’s property with impunity. If your tree falls on your neighbor’s roof, you are responsible for the damages. If you cause an automobile accident, you are liable. The same principle can, and should, apply to all resources, including water and air.
Certainly, resources that move, such as water and air, present some complexities not present with land, homes, and automobiles. But complexity does not negate the principle. If you pollute your neighbor’s waterway, you are morally responsible for the damages.
(For a more thorough analysis of this issue, including how to establish property rights in waterways, see my article “The Practicality of Private Waterways.”)