jmowreader's Crazy Idea for Cutting Down on Industrial Flight

[jmowreader]

I've been told that some of the companies that offshored their manufacturing wouldn't have done it except all those nasty, evil environmental regulations would have forced them to completely remediate their sites before they installed much-needed new equipment. So...they just HAD to go to China to save their companies.

If this is the case, why wouldn't this Crazy Idea work...allow companies who are going to use their factories for a "substantially equivalent" purpose to upgrade equipment without environmental paperwork or site remediation?

How this works: Acme needs to install a new production line to make instant holes more efficiently. If they're already making instant holes on the equipment they propose replacing, there won't be any change in environmental impact if we let them replace the machine.

Now...if Acme wants to quit making instant holes and change to making paint thinner, their environmental impact will obviously change so they should have to file a new statement. But changing from polyurethane instant holes to polyurethane potholders wouldn't affect the environmental impact.