[ehnto]

Not practically they're not. They would suffer fines, at worst you'd have the people running the company get fined, at an absolute extreme they'd go to jail (VW/dieselgate). You could argue that prison time is the point that it backed by violence, but I must admit I'm fairly surprised that we're discussing the validity of laws and regulation as a concept in general, in response to regulating industrial pollution.

[cableshaft]

I used to listen to Libertarian talk shows back in the day. Those people thought all laws, regulation, and taxation were violence (they only work because government will point a gun at you and throw you in prison). They're not exactly wrong, but I no longer find the argument very persuasive.

In the same sense, corporations are committing violence on us also, by destroying the planet that we all live on.