The Associated Press is reporting today the California Air Resources Board has decreed that, beginning next year, no more dry-cleaning machines using PCE (a suspected carcinogen in humans)may be sold in the State and that, by 2023, no more of such dry-cleaning machines can even be used in the State. It is not apparent, however, what chemical can readily be used in place of PCE.
Per the AP report, "cleaners said eliminating the most common dry cleaning solvent could drive them out of business because alternative methods are unproven and more costly. 'It could shut down some mom-and-pop operations -- the little guys that can't afford it,' said Bob Blackburn, president of the California Cleaners Association."
The quote from Mr. Blackburn illustrates once again that, while many Americans are suspicious of "big business", the policies their rerepresentatives enact in the name of the environment actually tend to concentrate power in such businesses. Unproven and costly methods of dry cleaning will act as a barrier to entry into the dry-cleaning field by moms and pops-- only large-scale amalgamations, either existing or to be created, will be able to surmount such barriers.
Environmentalists should thus not be surprised if, in the future, their clothes are being dry-cleaned by a subsidiary of Haliburton.
