UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian is running an op-ed from me that cites a new UC Berkeley study on how businesses have been crying wolf over environmental regulations that aim to limit pollution:

But new research from UC Berkeley professors Joseph Shapiro and Reed Walker provides comprehensive data to call out many businesses on these bluffs. The study shows how businesses in fact respond to environmental regulation with innovation and cleaner production practices — as well as increased productivity. They found that between 1990 and 2008, pollution from U.S. manufacturing fell a remarkable 60 percent, while at the same time manufacturing output actually increased.

As I describe in the piece, the lesson from the study is that smart policy that gives industry a clear and predictable signal can yield both environmental and public health gains, as well as continued economic output.

As states and countries around the world ramp up efforts to combat climate change, that less is worth heeding.