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Patricia Dukes XPA 504 December 1, 2016 Energy and the Environment – Chapter 13 This chapter has traversed over the broad topic, Energy, and the Environment. As noted by the authors, the Public Choice theory perceives the pollution of the environment as an externality of man`s activity. Governments, firms, and individuals often impose on others unwanted costs. As the chapter outlines, the environment is referred to as a common pool resource as its access is restricted since there are no property rights that are clearly defined to it. Accordingly, no one possesses a personal responsibility to care for it. The government, firms, and individuals thus normally use it to dispose of waste materials and by-products thereby generating externalities or unwanted costs on everyone. Nonetheless, the government is bestowed with a legitimate responsibility in managing the externalities in the environment. This is possible in several ways according to the public choice theory. The author observes that economic growth is compatible with the protection of the environment. Converse to this, the chapter outlines that wealth increases, as well as technology advances, offers the best hope towards a cleaner environment. Furthermore, it is pointed out that efficient risk reduction and pollution control ought to be balanced with its costs. In consequence, the environmental policies that have its costs exceeding the benefits will hamper the society’s efforts of dealing with the environmental problems effectively. It should be noted that the costs associated with removal of additional environmental risks and pollutants increase as zero tolerance is approached. Besides these, the
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