Related links:
Plastic Bag Bans: Another Feel-Good Eco-Fad
by Todd Myers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2912900/posts
31JUL2012
Video: Taxpayers subsidize wind-farm generation … and non-generation
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2856307/posts
8MAR2012
“We require taxpayers to subsidize the production of renewable energy, and now we want ratepayers to pay renewable energy companies when they lose money?” asked Todd Myers, director of the Center for the Environment of the Washington Policy Center and author of “Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism is Harming the Environment.”
Environmentalism has nothing to do with fads. It is mainly about the federal govt and to a lesser degree, state govts.
At the federal level there are acts of Congress like NEPA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and many others. The 1990 congressional amendment to the Clean Air Act brought Sulfur, Mercury, and other toxics into regulation. If you are talking about land use regs, then FLPMA in 1976 and the Healthy Forest Initiative in 1982 are important.
And the judiciary is also very involved. CO2 regulations are being driven by 3 SCOTUS decisions: Massachusetts v EPA in 2007, AEP v Connecticut in 2011, and Utility Air Regulatory Group v EPA in 2014.
Any and every thing that has to do with the environment gets litigated.