kutulu

Environmental regulation created all kinds of jobs but it's something companies would never admit, unless the company exists solely as environmental consultants. Depending on the industry, companies have to comply with these basic areas:

Stormwater pollution
Spill prevention
Air Quality
Water Quality
Soil Quality

There are others, but those are the most typical.

Jobs are created at:
1. Industry level, people at the plants that are responsible for managing the related tasks, people they report to, and the people in charge of the ones they are reporting to. Otherwise, they delegate compliance to:
2. Consultants, they handle environmental issues for the plant, the company may use several consultants to cover all areas. These places may perform sampling and testing services to demonstrate compliance.
3. Regulatory agencies (EPA, 1,000's of people, then there are state, county and sometimes, even city agencies)
4. Companies that build pollution control devices such as baghouses that collect particulates and scrubbers that remove sulfer from stacks
5. Companies that build monitoring equipment, ranging from hand-held equipment to continuous monitors placed permanently on stacks.

You always hear about how environmental comliance is a drain on industry. Yes, it costs them money but not as much as Rush tells you. It's more like a couple thousand here, a couple thousand there. A small portion of a design project is spent on controllling pollution created by the exapansion. What you never hear about is the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been created as a result of environmental regulations in addition to the benefits of having cleaner air, water, and soil.

The fact is we have a large population that keeps growing. People can only buy so much 'stuff' and as time goes by, the amount of people required to manufacture, distribute, and sell that stuff keeps decreasing. The birth of environmental responsibility and compliance has been good for the country. Not only has it given us a cleaner environment, but it has also created tons of jobs.

Still waiting for Rush to give that perspective some thought...