The Prius, and unintended consequences

One problem with environmental regulations is that they often create one or two environmental problems for each environmental problem they mitigate.

Fuel-additive laws reduced lead emissions, but they gave us MTBE. Ethanol subsidies and mandates reduced petroleum usage, but they gave us toxic runoff, deforestation, and some pollution increases. Outlaw the traditional incandescent, and you get more lightbulbs made in China (at plants with worse pollution records than the U.S. plants they’re replacing) and mercury gas in bulbs. Impose fuel-economy standards, and you get aluminum-framed cars made through GHG-intensive processes in Australia. I could go on….