Programs must work toward providing all citizens with levels of environmental quality meeting or exceeding standards, and treating all regulated entities consistently under comparable rules. Trading Programs must, where possible, recognize that ambient air and water are public goods, and that those who would use them must pay an appropriate charge to the public. Existing emission levels must not be converted into quasi-property rights for polluters. Flexibility Programs must require that dispensations from requirements in all cases be tied to monitoring actual performance, with calculations used to supplement, not replace, performance monitoring. The programs must increase the rationality, consistency, and clarity of the steps required in the compliance process, rather that blur them or lead to the conclusion that every regulated entity should attempt to negotiate their own arrangements.
Consistency provides the underpinning for even-handed enforcement.
The programs must not shift the burden of using expert knowledge to protect the public from government to lay people, nor should only the powerful get protected and those skilled in debate and negotiation. Programs must require that permits be revised periodically to make reasonable reductions in permitted discharges as to reflect advances in the state of control technology, as well as in understanding of control needs. And they must be no less transparent and open to public notice and comment.