Do environmental laws and regulations justify their cost?

It has been argued that many environmental laws and regulations are too costly and cannot be justified by their benefits. It has been argued that urban sprawl is the root of many environmental problems. Do you agree or disagree?Do environmental laws and regulations justify their cost?It's hard to talk about environmental laws in general without any specific examples. Because some environmental laws may be sensible and good, while others not so sensible and not so good.



But people often disagree about the costs and benefits of environmental laws because quite often one group of people has to pay the cost. While some other group of people gets most of the benefit.



For example, factory owners have to pay for environmental pollution control of their factory. But this pollution control benefits mostly the local community and not so much the factory owners who live far away.



That's why factory owners are likely to say that the environmental law for their factory is unjustified in terms of cost. While the local community leaders are likely to say that the benefit of this law far out-weighs the cost.



And it's true that urban sprawl creates a very inefficient way of living, where walking or using public transportation is impractical. And where people must drive long distances to school, to work, and for shopping.



Urban sprawl also quite often takes valuable agricultural land out of production. Which is a bad thing in a world with increasing population and increasing need for food.