The Baptists and the Bootleggers

Why would St. Joe, the largest developer and landowner in the Florida Panhandle, team up with local environmentalist fanatics to push Crayfish regulations on the rest of us? It's a case of the Baptists teaming up with the Bootletters, as explained in the link below, from an article that explains "rent-seeking". Wikipedia definition: "rent seeking occurs when an individual, organization, or firm seeks to make money by manipulating the economic environment rather than by making a profit through trade and production of wealth." The article explains:
"Rent seeking occurs, in part, because firms can receive concentrated benefits through government action while the costs are dispersed throughout the whole of society."

An excerpt:
Rent seeking in the name of environmental policy is prevalent, in part, because green policies shield otherwise ill-fated policies—paint a proposal green, and it will receive less scrutiny than it would otherwise. Moreover, the ability of economic interest groups to supplement their lobbying efforts with "public interest" allies from the environmentalist community greatly enhances their political clout. Clemson University Professor and former-Federal Trade Commission official Bruce Yandle called such efforts "Bootlegger and Baptist" coalitions. "Both bootleggers and Baptists favor statutes that shut down liquor stores on Sunday," Yandle explains. "The Baptists because of their religious preferences. The bootleggers because it expands their market."

Read the entire article here:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg19n4b.html