---
title: 'Easiest Way to Avoid Environmental Laws'
slug: 'easiest-way-to-avoid-environmental-laws'
date: 2026-05-12
type: 'post'
status: 'published'
tags: ['clean-air-act', 'regulatory-reform']
abstract: '> —“The easiest way to avoid environmental regulation is to create more of them.”'
license: 'CC-BY-4.0'
author: 'Jed Anderson'
co_authors: []
canonical_url: 'https://jedanderson.org/posts/easiest-way-to-avoid-environmental-laws'
original_source: 'https://sipreform.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/easiest-way-to-avoid-environmental-laws/'
original_date: 2017-02-22
supporting_files: []
---

> —“The easiest way to avoid environmental regulation is to create more of them.”

People ask me what the law says.  Increasingly I ask, “What do you want it to say?”  As environmental regulations grow in size and complexity—the ambiguities, conflicts, and redundancies grow—and therefore the ability to construe them however we want grows.

The reason why the easiest way to avoid environmental regulation perhaps is to create more of them is that environmental groups and environmental agencies can be conscripted in this tactic.  Yes, regulations can be avoided by removing them—but adding them to 10,000 other regulations is generally much easier.  It’s not better . . . but it is an easier way to avoid the law.

![churchill](/images/sip/churchill.png)

Time to simplify and transform the Clean Air Act to better prepare ourselves for the problems and opportunities of a 21st century world.  We can make it happen.

To view a summary of the “21st Century Clean Air Act”, click [here](/pdfs/sip/Clean_Air_Act_Reauthorization_of_2017.pdf).  For the text of the new Act click [here](/pdfs/sip/The_Clean_Air_Act_Reauthorization_of_2017.pdf).