Do you know of any specific refutations of the Porter Hypothesis?
(besides the obvious: http://search.mises.org/search?q=Michael+Porter&site=default_collection&btnG=Search+Mises.org&entqr=0&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&client=default_frontend&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=default_frontend)
According to the Porter Hypothesis, strict environmental regulations can induce efficiency and encourage innovations that help improve commercial competitiveness. The hypothesis was formulated by the economist Michael Porter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_hypothesis
Central planning keeps coming into mind with the terms efficiency and regulation.
I think an analogy could be drawn with patents. If the Hypothesis was correct the industrial revolution wouldn't have been set back two decades while waiting for James watt's patent to expire.