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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (9782)	2/19/2012 12:31:53 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

Or they pass laws to supposedly increase environmental protection or consumer safety and science (or economics) be damned. Environmental and other groups are as much of a special interest as the oil companies. And there ideas get latched on to by other special interests (such as agricultural lobbies on the idea of mandating ethanol in fuel). Also companies that would be regulated themselves often push for regulation, either because they think they can shape it to directly give them an advantage, or because even if its costs them money and hassle, they think they can deal with it better than actual or potential competitors. And the self interest of politicians tends to be to do more, to impose more controls, both because imposing more controls gives them power, and because it is seen as "doing something", and possible seen as "standing up to big oil/tobacco/banks/whatever" (even if its the companies in question support the intervention so they can game the new system).