Apart from all of its pretzel logic, I was disappointed with some basic weaknesses of this book. This is unfortunate because the use of economic incentives in environmental policy is a very promising approach and, in my view, is the major positive contribution that traditional economists have made to addressing environmental issues. I was also disappointed that there was no mention of the biodiversity crisis. Also, the focus throughout the book was exclusively on the United States rather than taking a global perspective, which of course would require a consideration of the huge environmental and social impacts of our resource-intensive lifestyles on other regions. I agree with the authors that markets are an incredibly powerful tool, and I believe that market-based approaches should be used whenever possible to efficiently achieve environmental goals.
Markets are very effective at allocating resources efficiently.
But markets are not a panacea. Markets see only efficiency. Bolch and Lyons fall into the trap of many economists of making efficiency the sole goal of our society. But we have other goals, such as equity and sustainability. There is no automatic and positive relationship between the economically efficient use of resources and environmental sustainability.