Saving Energy, Growing Jobs: How Environmental Protection Promotes Economic Growth, Competition, Profitability and Innovation

The idea that we must choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy is a myth, says David Goldstein. Not only do well-conceived environmental regulations create more jobs, in the long run they contribute to more efficient designs and less expensive products. Standing between us and a cleaner, more prosperous society is the resistance of economic incumbents and a misplaced ideological opposition to any kind of regulation, even though it might prove beneficial.

Challenging the myths that aggressive environmental protections necessarily undermine the American economy and that corporate America must oppose progressive environmental policies, MacArthur ("genius award") fellow Goldstein aims for the middle ground in this pragmatic, heavy-going effort. The energy program director for the National Resource Defense Council, Goldstein favors didactic analysis and footnote-buttressed assertion over illustrative anecdote—though a paragraph about his kitchen redesign, which used reflected rather than directed light to make reading cookbooks easier while cutting energy use by 95%, does add a personal touch. For general readers, the book's most accessible section recounts the success of energy efficiency mandates and technological advances, such as light-emitting diodes used in traffic and Christmas tree lights; smaller, more efficient air conditioning units that comply with 1992 nationwide standards; and refrigerator redesigns forced by regulations starting in 1977 that have cut the cost of a new fridge in half. "If business and environmentalists work together... we can improve competitiveness and growth while we make the world a place we can leave to our grandchildren with a sense of pride," Goldstein concludes. (Feb.)
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