Industrial processes damage the environment and cause serious local and global deterioration. A first wave of environmental statutes in the United States has reduced pollution and deterioration, primarily through rigid and expensive regulations. Now that experience has been gained with these laws, their high cost, inflexibility, and adversarial nature are seen as shortcomings. There are many suggestions for more cost-effective and flexible regulation. In the next chapter we discuss methods for determining how regulatory programs can become more efficient and effective and also what corporations are doing to reduce pollution and protect the environment.