Scientific uncertainty about risk used to be resolved in favor of the regulator. But if a chemical company wants approval for a new, bio-engineered pesticide, the burdens are reversed. Here, ignorance about risks translates into the strictest possible regulation by the agency. Trouble is, the more innovative a new technology really is, the more scientific uncertainty there is about both its risks and benefits. If change is to occur at all, the gatekeeper at the agency insists that it occur incrementally, within the safe boundaries of existing paradigms.
Development is preferred over invention.
The small step by an established company is favored over a great leap in an altogether new industry. Adding scrubbers to familiar coal-burning plants is easy but expensive. Switching to cleaner nuclear fuel is difficult. The injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera, developed by Upjohn in the U.S., is marketed in 90 other countries, but not ours. No approval of any of these products in the U.S. is imminent.