The sweeping environmental protection goals often adopted in laws cannot be achieved overnight. The very fact that pollution controls are needed presupposes that the status quo, in which society is operating without such controls, has posed an unacceptable threat to the environment. Imposing environmental protection requirements on current operations will necessarily require significant adjustments in the behavior of individuals, government agencies, and industry. Both the regulated and the regulators will have to learn about the content of the new rules and develop methods of ensuring that compliance with the rules is achieved....
