The Role of the Government
We believe that federal, state and local governments must play an important role in protecting the people and the environment, encouraging the right behaviors, and enforcing our laws. Governments, through agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), should work for the people and with businesses to:
- Set meaningful standards to drive behaviors
- Create enforceable laws
- Provide infrastructure to support the right behaviors
- Monitor and measure results
- Provide incentives, enforcement and penalties to encourage the right behaviors and discourage the wrong ones
- Create an energy market that encourages technical, management and financial innovation to encourage innovation in energy use and efficiency. For example, for wind and solar energy:
- Investment Tax Credits and Production Tax Credits that match those for other energy sources.
- Simplified laws and permitting procedures.
- Additional financing options, such as Power Purchase Agreements and Third Part Ownership.
- Create a materials market that encourages technical, management and financial innovation to incentivize material innovation and improvements in material reduction, re-use and recycling. For example: Business tax incentives for the purchase of recycling equipment and a recycling tax deduction or credit for consumers.
