The US polluters that are rewriting the EU's human rights and climate law

EU Regulation: Bureaucracy vs Protections

• Some argue many EU directives are “useless bureaucracy,” citing examples like attached bottle caps, banana/cucumber grading rules, start‑stop in cars, screen timeouts, and de minimis changes.
• Others counter that these are either misunderstood (grading standards, caps reducing litter) or minor annoyances compared to major gains in consumer, environmental, labor, and digital rights (GDPR, DMA, pollution controls, product safety).
• Disagreement over whether the EU is undermining encryption and free speech: some blame “Brussels,” others say it’s mainly national governments/Council pushing measures like Chat Control, with Parliament often resisting.

Corporate Lobbying and “Competitiveness”

• Thread links the article’s “competitiveness” framing to a wider campaign: big oil and big tech allegedly use the same playbook to weaken EU rules and push an anti-regulation narrative, including online astroturfing.
• Several commenters say the intensity of efforts to roll back laws contradicts claims that these rules are “useless.”
• Debate on lobbying: one side sees it as intrinsic to democracy (affected interests providing input); others say it’s de facto corruption given wealth disparities, weak transparency, and revolving doors.
• Proposals range from tighter transparency and limits, to treating most corporate lobbying as corruption or addressing root causes via wealth redistribution.

Democracy, the EU, and Accountability

• Some say this deregulatory turn is “what Europeans voted for” as right and center‑right dominate Parliament and Council; others argue no one campaigned on gutting specific directives, so this is backroom policymaking.
• Broader worries about low turnout, complexity, and opaque appointment of Commissioners lead to perceptions of a democratic deficit and difficulty holding EU-level actors to account.

Markets, Capitalism and Power

• Long subthread debates whether markets are inherently exploitative or just need antitrust and externality pricing.
• One camp emphasizes structural asymmetry, wealth inequality, and capture of the state by capital; the other stresses voluntariness, historical failures of full planning, and the usefulness of regulated markets.

Climate Policy, Green Industry and Steel

• Some say EU green laws are “not of this world,” claiming they push steelmaking and heavy industry out of Europe and threaten defense capacity.
• Others reply that low‑emission steel is technically viable and already being pursued (e.g. hydrogen-based processes), with cost and global competition the real problems.
• Discussion of green hydrogen: significant scepticism about current economics and past overpromises; supporters see it as a necessary early‑stage bet that requires public investment.

Fossil Fuels: Convenience vs Catastrophe

• Many condemn big oil’s decades-long behavior as uniquely destructive, enabled by secrecy, externalized costs, and regulatory capture.
• Counterpoints emphasize how fossil fuels underpinned modern comfort and mobility; critics respond that this doesn’t justify continued obstruction of transition or anti-democratic lobbying.

Due Diligence & Reporting Burdens (CSDDD, CSRD, Taxonomy)

• One detailed account portrays the green taxonomy/CSRD regime as extraordinarily complex, poorly phased, and detached from operational reality, generating large compliance costs with little field impact.
• Others defend CSDDD’s core idea: companies shouldn’t be able to avoid responsibility for human rights and environmental abuses by pushing them down opaque supply chains, even if that creates administrative work.

Offshoring Pollution and Global Justice

• Several note EU/US “cleanliness” partly reflects outsourcing of emissions and labor abuses to low-regulation producers (China, Bangladesh, etc.), though data on consumption-based CO₂ shows some decoupling.
• There is tension between viewing this as exploitative offshoring vs as a path that has also lifted millions from poverty and is now fueling climate-tech leadership in some of those countries.