Funny how governments tend to be the biggest polluters then, huh?
Giving government control over the environment Is effectively giving them the ability to issue licenses to pollute. Since this cannot happen in a private market, I fail to see how government "can" protect the market better than the free market, given that all they can do is not issue those licenses, at best matching the free market.
they can also levee taxes, reducing/discouraging businesses that are polluting.
In a free market economy, with all land privately owned, polluters who damage other people's persons or property have to pay them restitution. If they only damage their own land, then they reduce it's future value (unless cleaned up). Either way, they're losing money, and without the option of lobbying for tax breaks. This likewise discourages polluting businesses.