Comment by potato3732842
7 hours ago
"But the law says they have to" is just a fancy way of saying you've outsourced your morals to the legislature.
The fact that there is a law saying this drag must be applied does not make it right. I'm fully aware we need to protect natural species, not create fire risks, etc, etc, but the idea that every project must incur cost to prove up front that it is complete is an asinine drag on everything, especially seeing as like 99.9% of projects are effectively compliant from the get go and the bulk of the time wasting consists of circulating correspondance and nit picking to this effect.
> "But the law says they have to" is just a fancy way of saying you've outsourced your morals to the legislature.
Some folks don't have morals and so legislation is enacted to act as a floor for bad behaviour.
you've outsourced your morals to the legislature
That's basically the whole point of a representative government, no?
>That's basically the whole point of a representative government, no?
That attitude is the problem. They're supposed to represent you (or some approximation thereof) not tell you what to think. It's in the f-ing name.
So vote for somebody else.
The laws exist because we, collectively, thought they were a good idea. They can be changed if/when we change our minds.
For this specific thing, the drag while proving lack of damage is the point. Once the road/rail/bridge/whatever is built, it's often too late to simply say "oops". That, plus industry has a well deserved reputation for ignoring the environment when it becomes inconvenient.