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The ESA and many other environmental acts, atari. Rent-seeking companies use political sway and regulation to kill their competition, all in the name of the environment (see the Clean Air Act)
It's called "Bootleggers and Baptists," referring to the idea that the Baptists were the moral opposition to alcohol, but the Bootleggers were the ones that actually stood to gain from prohibition since there was profit to be made. In our case here, environmentalists that care about looking good more than doing good are the Baptists.
But many times, a close analysis of acts like the Endangered Species Act show that the regulations may have in fact created perverse incentives to kill animals that are on the list because of the economic consequences a landowner faces if the government finds the animals.
I'm all for protecting endangered species and decreasing pollution, but I am avidly opposed to nominal legislation that creates monopolies while producing effects opposite of those that were intended.
Sorry, that was off the subject.
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