There's no inherent right to burn things and let the smoke go into the atmosphere. People and businesses have some rules to follow, and businesses in particular are regulated in how much they can emit.
Regulating agencies do check to make sure the emissions are within limits.
But economist Eric Zou at the University of Oregon tells us that regulators do not necessarily monitor for pollutants every day. So it can make business sense for a company to pollute on the off-days.
We take up the issue in this month's edition of Curious: Research Meets Radio, our joint venture with UO.