In threatening to oppose California's new fluorine laws by moving, the semiconductor industry becomes the latest culprit to highlight a lack of international coherence on environmental standards.
"To the extent California makes it more costly, more cumbersome to operate here, you're not going to attract these facilities in the future," John Greenagel spokesman.
You can't rob Peter Citizen to pay Paul Stockholder.
If industries move overseas to avoid environmental (or labor) compliance costs, then America must charge those industries for future 'cleanup' costs - usually borne by a taxpayer.
Who pays determines how much.
Realistically, future cleanup is far more than the pennies added to the initial cost of a sustainably produced product.
As environments degrade, developing agriculture & societies are ruptured by problems that would overwhelm even developed countries. 'Dump and run' operations bankrupt future generations & destabilize today's societies.
As countries are abused by industries, we must help or watching them degrade into chronic lawless war-states such as Somalia or Pakistan.
Simply put, fluorine & other environmental non-compliance efforts do not constitute a free lunch.
As has been made clear by the cost of oppressing cultures in Pakistan, treatment is always more expensive than prevention. The combined cost in dollars and human lives far overwhelms the compliance cost.
While the SIA estimates fluorine reduction could cost $40 million, the reality of chemistry and physics offers a harsher accounting. Fluorine has a greenhouse gas impact 23,000 times greater than CO2.
In simple terms, proactive environmental regulation is the equivalent of closing a barn door versus tracking down a herd of thousands in the wild.
Greenpeace has documented the impacts of of e-waste and there exists ample knowledge to suggest that the impact of global warming and toxic threats to water supplies will pose even greater threats as populations increase.
Given the rising danger to our collective world, industries must be made to understand their 'cost of doing business' must include the long-term environmental and societal effects of their business.
Sending the problem away today virtually ensures a much bigger problem tomorrow. With the way Indonesia's fundamentalists barely keep their head above global floodwaters, you may feel the effects of Fluorine in a London/NYC high-rise before California ever would.
Original WP Fluorine story
BBC Story on the 'digital dump'
John Greenagel:
Phone: (408) 436-6600
Fax: (408) 436-6646
mailbox@sia-online.org
P.S. I called John. He's really as much a jerk as his quote sounds. If you're stuck in traffic and frustrated, do call and vent.