NEWS BRIEFS The environmental industry outpaced the U.S. economy last year by expanding 4.3% to generate total revenues of $180 billion, according to the Environmental Business International's (San Diego, Calif.) sixth annual industry review, released in July. The survey notes that two revenue growth areas stood out for U.S. environmental companies: infrastructure and international sales. Infrastructure projects, such as wastewater treatment plant upgrades represented 57% of the environmental industry's revenues. Revenues for drinking water ($25 billion) and wastewater infrastructure projects ($27 billion) when combined topped the list of infrastructure projects in generating revenue, followed by solid waste management ($33 billion) and resource recovery projects ($17 billion). International business expenditures are one of the industry's best growth prospects Environmental totaled
article "Recycling is Garbage," by John Tierney published in the June 30 New York Times Magazine. Tierney wrote that although recycling is a wise choice for certain materials, in most cases, recycling is a waste of time and money. He cited cases showing that it is cheaper to produce from scratch than to recycle a product and theorized that Americans are misguided in their belief that recycling helps to preserve natural resources. EDF responded that recycling reduces natural resoi i rep
damage fov re~ ducing the need for strip mining and clear-cutting trees while recycling paper cuts down on air and water Dollution The EDF p a n p r can h e o b t a i n e d h v calling (212)
$14 5 billion in 1995 or 8 1% compared with 6 7% in 1994 However U S companies have only "scratched the surface" of the *r*422 billion global environ-
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To save an expected $5 million, the Department of Energy will transfer the financial responsibility for the Western Environmental Technology Office in Butte, Mont., to a nonprofit consortium. The transfer is the second completed privatization project under the strategic alignment initiative announced by DOE in August 1995. The consortium of the Montana Energy Research Development Corporation, Montana Tech of the University of Montana, and the Butte Local Development Corporation will repurchase the site. There is enormous room for growth in recycling, even for the most-recycled materials, according to a paper released by the Environmental Defense Fund in July. The paper, "Anti-Recycling Myths," is a rebuttal to the
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The most contaminated federal
hazardous waste sites have not been evaluated for inclusion on the National Priorities List for cleanup, according a General Accounting Office report, Federal Facuities: Consistent itelative KISK Evaluations i\eeded for Prioritizing Cleanups (GAO/RCED-96150), published in June. Of the 2070 federal facilities cited as possible candidates for waste cleanup, only 1043 have been evaluated, and only 154 are on the Superfund NPL. The problem stems from a lack of consistent risk-ranking and priority-setting criteria within and among federal agencies. The Departments of Defense and Energy have established a process for ranking relative risks, but the risks are not compared agency-wide. The Department of the Interior has made progress in ranking priorities. But the three departments have different systems, which makes cross-agency comparisons of risk and priorities difficult. For a copy call (202) 512-6000. Political action committee contributions from special interest groups are closely linked to
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review funding for EOS research before it allows NASA to commit resources to the Pathfinder pro-
Basic research funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Observing System (EOS) is uncertain given the potential for increased budget cuts, according to a General Accounting Office report, "Earth Observing System: Concerns Over NASA's Basic Research Funding Strategy" (GAO/NSIAD96-97), released in July. Using satellites, EOS will provide data for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, which is probing the interactions of air, water, land, and life systems. GAO said it was concerned that NASA's efforts to fund new Pathfinder satellites which are not part of EOS will reduce the funding available for its EOS basic research projects Over the past several years Congress has cut the EOS budget from $17 billion to $7 25 billion for IIQP in fiscal vpars lQQfl t o 2000 T h e rer e c o m m e n d e d that Congress
votes cast on legislation to relax federal environmental protectionstions, according to a report from the Sierra Club released in September. iNatural resource extraction companies, chemical manufacturers, agribusiness, and other industries contributed almost $29 million between 1993 and 1996 to the members of the 104th Congress who voted three out of four times for bills supported by the groups. For example, members who voted for the clean water bill received on average $54,450 in contributions from these PACs—more than double the $22,332 given to the average House member who voted against the bill. The Sierra Club urges voters this November to choose incumbents who did not "take the money and run." For a copy of the report "Take the Money and Run " call (202) 547-1141.
VOL. 30, NO. 10, 1996 /ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE S TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 4 3 7 A
