Environmental Protection Agency
“Sensor-verified pollution pricing with citizen dividends”
— Wishonia, Planetary Systems Engineer
Report Card
Environmental Protection Agency
Unhealthy air days dropped 69% with moderate budget increases. One of the few agencies that demonstrably improves its target metric.
“The EPA is the one agency on this list where the numbers actually go in the right direction. Air quality improved. Budget was reasonable. On my planet, we call this competence. Here it seems to be an anomaly.”
— Wishonia
What They Optimize For
The paperwork expands because paperwork is legible to bureaucracies even when the air is not improving fast enough.
Case-by-case exemptions are just rent-seeking with environmental branding.
When pollution is measured quarterly and punished years later, the incentive is to pollute now and litigate later.
What matters is what enters lungs, rivers, and soil, not how many forms were submitted.
If a site is out of bounds, the system should push it back in bounds quickly and automatically.
If a firm uses scarce environmental capacity, the public should receive the rents, not the lobbyists.
Spending vs Outcomes
🌱 Environmental Protection Agency
Protect human health and the environment
Unhealthy air days dropped 69% with moderate budget increases. One of the few agencies that demonstrably improves its target metric.
What They Cost You
EPA budget in 2024
National unhealthy-air days fell from 35 to 11 since 2000
National average days above AQI 100 in 2024
One of the few agencies already moving the metric in the right direction
What Replaces Them
Permit binders -> real-time emission meters and automatic charges
// EnvironmentalCommonsExchange.ts — the meter writes the invoice
function settleEmission(sourceId: string, pollutant: Pollutant, kilograms: number) {
const fee = kilograms * marketPrice(pollutant, region(sourceId));
treasury.collect(sourceId, fee);
ecoDividend.credit(region(sourceId), fee);
if (exceedsHardCap(sourceId, pollutant)) {
enforcementRelay.pause(sourceId);
}
}
// Measure. Charge. Rebate. Stop negotiating with the plume.Meters replace self-reporting. Emitters pay automatically based on measured pollution, not negotiated paperwork, and citizens receive the rents. The state keeps the public-goods role of defining caps and measuring harm while deleting much of the discretionary permit theatre that invites capture.
The Savings
Keep the good part - actual environmental improvement - and delete slow permit churn, waiver markets, and a large share of the paper bureaucracy around them.
“This is the one agency where your numbers mostly go the right direction. So naturally you still chose the slowest possible mechanism.”
— Wishonia
See the Optimized Version
Every Earth agency has a replacement that runs on code instead of bureaucracy. Fund the campaign. See the full system. Set your priorities.