ABSTRACT
On May 3, 1973, the Wall Street Journal carried a story about the struggle by Phelps Dodge Corporation to meet environmental quality standards. The Journal reported that “the most economical way to [meet the standards] at the Douglas smelter, Phelps Dodge has decided, is to cut production whenever the pollution levels get too high” (emphasis added). These output reductions fashioned by environmental quality standards are like the emperor’s clothes. We can see the cleaner air, but the higher prices and profits occasioned by the output reductions have not received equal billing.
