lyst at Paine-Webber, says of the $68-per-share offer, "This is an extraordinary gift to the owners of Union Carbide, who have long suffered from the mismanagement of their company by their hired hands." Butler says that the mere fact that it took two days for Carbide to respond to the offer with what he calls a "nothing statement" indi-
cates there may be some dissension in the ranks at Danbury, with some of the outside directors wanting to sell out. "We've been recommending GAF as our number one stock pick because we knew what it was going to do." If analysts knew, why didn't Carbide management know, and why weren't they ready to respond? he asks. •
House Superfund bill hikes chemical firms' taxes By a wide margin, 391 to 33, the House last week passed a $10 billion, five-year renewal of the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup law. By a very narrow margin, 220 to 206, the House also voted to place the financing burden on the shoulders of the chemical and oil industries. The House measure must be reconciled with a Senate Superfund bill approved last September. The Senate bill also renews Superfund for five years, but in all other respects it is vastly different from the House version. For example, it authorizes $7.5 billion over this period and sets no standards or timetables for cleanup. It raises a major portion of the $7.5 billion from a value-added tax (VAT) on large manufacturers. The chemical and oil industries lobbied the House strenuously for the broad-based tax reported out of the Ways & Means Committee. Such a VAT would have raised about $4.5 billion from nearly all manufacturers. Instead, in what was considered the most crucial vote on the floor, the House turned down the Ways & Means Committee taxing measure and simultaneously substituted a tax package offered by New York Democrat Thomas J. Downey and Minnesota Republican Bill Frenzel. The Downey-Frenzel five-year taxing scheme would raise $3.1 billion from a nearly 12 cent-a-barrel tax on crude oil, $2 billion from taxes on chemical feedstocks, another $2 billion from taxes on toxic waste disposal, and $1.6 billion from general revenues. The remaining funds would come from interest, cleanup cost recoveries, and taxes on petroleum derivatives and gasoline. The chemical and oil lobby said the Downey-Frenzel scheme would
send the industry and jobs abroad, and harm the balance of trade. Those arguments weren't heeded. The White House, chairman of the Ways & Means Committee Dan Rostenkowski (D.-I1L), and a coalition of business groups opposed the VAT, saying it would be the beginning of a national sales tax. Downey also argued that his measure reinstated the polluter-pays principle. The Chemical Manufacturers Association agrees that the polluter should pay. But the association has long argued that many industries have contributed to the hazardous waste problem. A CMA spokesman said the vote on taxes "was more a political vote than one on fairness." The Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association says another amendment affirmed last week places an excessive burden on small and medium-sized companies. This provision requires firms to report emissions of substances suspected of causing chronic health problems, as well as substances causing immediate illnesses and deaths. During floor debate, many Congressmen were critical of the Environmental Protection Agency's lack of progress under Superfund. Chairman of the Public Works & Transportation Committee James J. Howard (D.-N.J.) said, "The effort of the past five years was just not good enough. There were only six sites cleaned up in five years, one of which is already leaking." And he added, "It is up to us to direct EPA to get to work." The House bill does just that. It mandates that cleanup begin at 600 sites by Oct. 1, 1990, starting with 125 sites by Oct. 1, 1987. It requires that EPA target 1600 sites for cleanup by 1988. It sets cleanup stan-
Howard: six sites in five years dards at least as stringent as those set under the Clean Water Act. And it grants citizens the right to sue EPA and polluters for prompt cleanup of sites posing "substantial and imminent" danger to human health. House-Senate reconciliation is not expected until early January. Environmental groups are urging that the conference accept the Housepassed version. A compromise bill is not expected to be approved and sent to the President before late March. Presidential approval is not certain. The Administration has called for a five-year, $5.3 billion cleanup program. •
Smith to chair ACS Board for third term The American Chemical Society's Board of Directors has re-elected Paul V. Smith Jr. as its chairman for 1986, marking his third successive term in that post. He is manager of education and professional society relations for Exxon Research & Engineering Co., Florham Park, N.J. Smith has served as director-at-large since 1978. Meeting early this month near Washington, D.C., the board also elected three members to its Executive Committee for next year—Joe A. Adamcik and Clayton F. Callis (both directors-at-large) and immeDecember 16, 1985 C&EN
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