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Introduction
It is believed that Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, is strongly influenced by the notion of free enterprise. In fact, his economic policies (popularly known as ‘Reaganomics’) are aimed towards giving American industries greater freedom through deregulation. Regan may have been influenced by the economic theories of Milton Friedman whose view regarding industrialization and its impact is rather liberated. Friedman ultimately believes that the social responsibility of businesses is to increase their profits. In the same way, Reagan’s relaxed environmental policies is, in one way or another, a reflection of his belief that businesses are responsible enough to contain their operations under environmentally acceptable levels while generating enormous economic growth. According to observers, “In its early years, the Administration moved rapidly to slash budgets, reduce environmental enforcement and open public lands for mining, drilling, grazing and other private uses”. This paper would like to explore Reagan’s deregulatory policies towards industries and how deregulation has adversely impacted the environment as a whole.
Deregulation under Reagan
In 1981, it became apparent that Reagan is moving towards deregulating American industries with the appointment of industrialists James G. Watt as Secretary of the Interior and Anne M. Burford as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Most likely, this move was to prepare the country for some serious economic policies that is reminiscent of the Reagan legacy. During the time, the U.S. has not yet fully recovered from the recession that marked the administration of President Carter. While the country is troubled with high inflation and interest rates, Reagan’s presidential campaign focused on tax cuts, budget cuts and increased military spending. According to analysts, Reagan’s economic policies reflected his dislike for exuberant taxes when his filming career lifted off. Being a high-income individual, Reagan resented paying high taxes. Before he became president, Reagan believes that “it was a short step from there to the view that the federal government was violating his freedom”. In the early years of Reagan’s presidency, he pushed for a $39 billion budget cut and a 25% tax cut. For him, lower taxes would stimulate economic growth and the decreased collection as a result of lower tax would be neutralized by increased revenue. While his economic policies gained popular support, the country experienced a severe recession in 1982 as the annual budget deficit ballooned at $113 billion, which is $30 billion higher than Carter’s last year in office. Unemployment also increased at 10%, the highest in a span of forty years. However, it did not take long for the economy to pick up, which according to analyst is an effect of the reduced inflation rate (from 13% in 1980 to 5% in 1982) that sparked an economic boom in 1983. The economic boom during Reagan’s presidency “raised more people out of poverty than any similar boom since World War II”, which could have been the very reason why some Americans regard Ronald Reagan as the greatest American president in history . Reagan advocated voluntary compliance, obviously to promote an industry friendly environment in line with his economic policies. While previous administrations made serious efforts to protect the environment with the enactment of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and other national environmental policies, according to observers, “Deregulation of the environment became a dominant theme in the campaign of Ronald Reagan, and as President he reversed the machinery his predecessors, and preceding Congresses, had built”. A regulatory government ensures that industries comply with legal requirements by stepping up enforcement and regulatory measures. However, under the Reagan administration, these regulatory and enforcement measures were relaxed wherein industries and corporations were perceived as responsible entities and that they can comply voluntarily “assuming they are aware of the requirements, understand them and have the resources needed to comply”. Although voluntary compliance advocates corporate social responsibility, in the context of environmental protection, without a credible enforcement presence, there is no assurance that environmental policies are followed rigidly.
Environmental Impacts
While the deregulation policies of the Reagan administration significantly improved economic conditions in the U.S., leaving environmental policy compliance at the hands of industries and corporations created an enormous impact to the environment. Among the activities that posed serious environmental damage are the increased mining and drilling of oil and natural gas that marked the Reagan administration. Logically, due to deregulation, mining and drilling permits are relatively easy to obtain, which explains how mining and drilling became prevalent under Reagan’s presidency. One particular example is the increased mountaintop removal mining activities in the Appalachians. In terms of environmental hazards, mountaintop mining is among the highest. As its name suggests, mountaintop removal mining techniques scrape off mountain tops to reveal the coal layers while revealing toxic minerals as well. The spoils are then dumped on mountain sides, blocking and contaminating streams and rivers before they run off towards the lower elevations where most of the population resides. Currently, there are 500 peaks were affected by the mountaintop mining activities in the Appalachians . Aside from the contamination of water resources, mining activities in the Appalachians have been criticized for its adverse impact on endangered species. Biologists recently found that a new genus of salamanders, which could not be found elsewhere, resides in the Appalachian Mountains whose peaks are gradually being stripped off of their habitat. Aside from increased mining activities, oil and natural gas exploration has also increased due in part to deregulation policies and the emergence of a new drilling technology called hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is a revolutionary drilling technology that uses enormous amount of pressurized water combined with sands and other additives to facilitate the extraction of oil and natural gas that are trapped deep in the earth’s surface . While conventional drilling is already hazardous to the environment because of their high potential in contaminating the ground water table, the use of toxic additives in hydraulic drilling increases this risk even more. According to experts, harmful and highly toxic chemicals such as methanol, benzene, lead, isopropyl alcohol, 2-butoxyethanol and ethylene glycol may find their way towards the ground water table, which could eventually contaminate it. Along with the health hazards of ground water contamination, once the ground water is contaminated, the process could not be reversed in any natural or scientific means. Aside from the contamination of water resources as the primary impact of environmental deregulation, serious health hazard brought about by damage to bio-diverse regions have been a major concern among environmental scientists. Apparently, most natural resources such as mineral, oil and natural gas deposits are found in bio-diverse environments, which if disturbed, can affect the ecological balance of the region . Such disturbance could lead to the emergence of parasitic organisms that may not be considered as pathogens in their natural niche but could cause serious health issues when they infect human populations. Aside from the immediate environmental impacts that were discussed, the increased industrial activity during the Reagan administration can be pointed out as the biggest contributor to the climate change phenomena that most scientist believe is the cause of catastrophic disturbances in nature. Industrial activities increase the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere as well as facilitates the destruction of forests and vegetation that should have served as a balancing factor in the CO2 content of the atmosphere. The increase in greehouse gas rapidly increases global near-surface temperatures resulting to drought in some areas of the globe while increasing the intensity of typhoons. As observed, the number of category 4 and 5 storms has greatly increased over the past years in relation with the increase of ocean temperature.
Conclusion
Deregulation and voluntary compliance on the context of environmental protection are indeed advantageous on the part of industries and corporate entities yet it poses serious environmental compliance issues. As a result, industries gain a relatively higher freedom in their operation, which could result to serious environmental hazards. This scenario was particularly evident during the Reagan administration whose deregulation policies created an enormous economic returns yet it was at the expense of the environment. For the same reason, enormous contamination of water resources as well as the indiscriminate destruction of natural resources marked the presidency of Reagan whose legacy was tainted by environmental concerns. Currently, the United States are still experiencing the impact of Reagan’s deregulatory policies towards the environment and while serious efforts are being done to mitigate the impacts, the damages are quite irreversible.
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