September 04, 2011
The NYT told readers that the Republican Party:
“regards environmental regulations as job killers and a brick wall to economic recovery.”
Actually, the NYT has no idea how the Republican Party (presumably it means its leaders) views environmental regulations. It is entirely possible that most leaders are familiar with the research that shows that most environmental regulations have had little or no impact on jobs.
Republican leaders may also know that industry groups have a long history of making outlandish claims about job loss. (For example, the Clean Air Act was supposed to cost around 600,000 jobs. There was zero evidence of job loss after the bill was implemented.) Republicans may opt to echo such claims because they get campaign contributions from the affected industries and they know that the media will never hold them accountable for even the most absurd claims made on behalf of industry groups.
Comments