MANY PEOPLE WHO oppose environmental groups base their opposition on economic grounds, in the belief that environmentalists too often advocate environmental policies and programs without concern for their cost and propose legislation without undertaking realistic cost-benefit analyses.

Growing costs

Environmental groups often fight for laws and regulations that are expensive to enact. According to Dixy Lee Ray and Lou Guzzo, in 1992 the cost of administering and policing environmental regulations in the United States alone was $115 billion. In their book Environmental Overkill, they report that as of 1993, "The number of federal regulations [had] increased from 16,502 to 200,000" in addition to numerous state and local regulations.

Ray and Guzzo criticize environmental groups for the proliferation of this bureaucracy, saying: "Who benefits [from these regulations]? Well, lawyers do, expert consultants on environmental law do, and special interests that can manipulate the regulations...