by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
The Daily Sentinel
When Congress authorized nearly $400 billion in climate subsidies, the bill was called the “Inflation Reduction Act,” though it had nothing to do with inflation. The 2001 “Patriot Act” was about expanding government surveillance powers, not patriotism. The massive new federal health insurance program was called the “Affordable Care Act,” though it did not reduce the cost of anything. And we call laws restricting mandatory union contracts “right to work,” though they create no jobs.
Popular-sounding names enhance the chances of acceptance for many proposals that might otherwise fail the test of public opinion. Calling a new program of government regulations, fees, and permits a “market-based solution” might appeal to folks who would otherwise oppose it. That may be the strategy behind a fascinating new analysis of the impact giant merchant ships have on killer whale populations.
It is a proposal written by M. Scott Taylor and published by the Property and Environment Research Center in Montana. It’s titled “Saving Killer Whales Without Sinking Trade,” and calls its suggestion “a market solution to noise pollution.” Few whale observers have drawn direct links between the noise of giant ships and the health of killer whales. But there may be a closer relationship than previously suspected.
Scott Taylor is a great writer, a renowned Canadian economist who has studied, researched, and taught at universities around the world and published numerous scholarly articles. He has a self-described reputation for “the use of novel methods and data to evaluate hypotheses that were previously unexplored,” meaning new and untested. Such as exploring this shipping noise issue.
