ENVIRONMENTAL
NEWS
Critics doubt Clinton's second term will advance reg reforms
D
espite an environmentally lackluster first term, President Clinton's re-election in November could throw open a window of opportunity to fundamentally change how America protects the environment, according to business leaders, EPA staff, and long-time agency watchers. Pressure for a major overhaul has been building for observers believe and has recently increased because a Republican Congress and well-organized industrial lobby have opposed EPA at nearly every turn except in its attempts to propose reforms However critics doubt the Clinton administration's willingness to lead in restructuring environmental laws and sav campaign rhetoric aside the' ministration has been a reluctant friend of thp environment Also th a e hirrhl critical of FPA AH mimstrator Carol Browner s running of the agency. On the plus side, observers single out EPA pilot programs that may lead to performanceand incentive-driven regulations, process changes to reduce pollution and increase efficiency, and new regulatory schemes to give industries, states, and communities more power to determine their environmental fates. However, many say EPA should do more. "EPA must take the next step and see if they can expand successful pilot programs to new areas and industries," said Dorothy Bowers, Merck & Co., Inc,, vice president and participant in Project XL. Her view is shared by Terry Davies, a former EPA assistant administrator for policy and director of Resources for the Future's Risk Management Center But Dcivies goes further: "It is time to quit fussing around with pilot programs and to change statutes
"If you step back a minute and think about it, one of the top environmental innovations of the administration is a set of pilot programs to get around EPA's statutory mandates. Agency heads are not supposed to campaign on ways to get around their own laws." While problems are clear, Davies acknowledged that there is little agreement on how they should be fixed. Still he called for a major overhaul of environmen-
"We're still waiting for the 'Gore dividend.'" Joan Berkowitz, Farkas Berkowitz & Co.
tal statutes and for a full debate in Congress. Among those most disappointed in the Clinton administration's environmental performance in its first term is the environmental technology industry. Its leaders blasted Browner for creating an "era of uncertainty" in which regulations are stalled, enforcement softened, and leadership lacking, especially the clout needed to reauthorize environmental laws, such as Superfund. Those interviewed knowledged Browner was battered by the Republican leadership in all but the last few months of the 104th Congress and several said one of her main successes was defending the agency during this time But thev also noted Clinton had the benefit of a Democratic Congress for the administration's first two years and still failed to move en vironmental legislation or provide a Wklati e appnda "Opat shield no sword is how a Sierra Club official described the Browner EPA.
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Others, more familiar with EPA's inner workings, say the administrator has never gotten in touch with the day-to-day operation of the agency, especially program offices, which have been left to drift. Long-time EPA staff add that her tenure has politicized environmental and health decisions. As an example, sources point to a recent 13-page report on environmental health threats to children which they said reads like a campaign document m.£ilcinL2 more than 50 references to Clinton administration accomplishments "You wouldn't see this in the Nixon Carter Reagan or Bush administration " said a displeased EPA staffer "We are still waiting for the 'Gore dividend' that was promised in 1992," added Joan Berkowitz of Farkas Berkowitz & Co,, a consulting firm that tracks environmental technology markets. Environmental stocks are "in the gutter," industries are spending less for environmental compliance, and EPA's push to voluntary regulatory reforms will do little for environmental technologies, she said. And while Clinton's Superfund reforms may lead to more cleanups, Berkowitz said, her assessment of piirrpnt remediation decisions shows that cheaper quicker and more traditional choices prevailed EPA regional staff echoed that concern and added that potentially responsible parties see the Superfund reforms as a signal that the administration is willing to compromise on the quality of cleanups, while Superfund reauthorization stalls in Congress. EPA staff and environmental technology leaders predicted that in future reauthorization battles, the president and Congress will push the cleanup program to the states a trend similar to last year's welfare reform The Superfund reforms have led to accelerated cleanups and lower standards, Berkowitz said, a move that spells trouble for the
0013-936X/96/0930-524AS12.00/0 © 1996 American Chemical Society
Administration's environmental record "unparalleled," says Browner "Has the president been willing to put his money where his rhetoric has been?" asked EPA Administrator Carol Browner, speaking at the Society of Environmental Journalists' annual meeting Oct. 18. "The record is clear. If you look at what we've accomplished, it is unparalleled in the history of the Environmental Protection Agency." Browner cited several specific achievements: • Expansion of chemicals covered by the Toxics Release Inventory and inclusion of federal facilities in the reporting requirements. • Air toxics emissions reductions for the chemical industry. The "maximum achievable control technology" for this sector has been under development for six years and is expected to be finalized in December. • "First ever" controls on all hazardous waste incinerators, when once implemented will require new air controls for incinerators and cement kilns that burn hazardous waste. • More Superfund cleanups in the last three years
technology industry. She blamed cleanup delays of 10-plus-years for driving residents and local officials to accept lower cleanup levels in return for any action that concludes with containment and the removal of the stigma of a Superfund listing. Grant Ferrier, head of Environmental Business International Inc., an environmental research and publishing firm, joined Berkowitz in expressing the technology industry's disappointment. Ferrier strongly supports the Common Sense Initiative, Project XL, and other reform attempts but added, "We need a base of regulations and a firm threat of punitive action if regulations are avoided." He said, though, the country has reached an "insurmountable consensus" that performancebased incentives will work. A framework has been created, according to Ferrier, in which environmental issues can be incorporated into industry-specific economic policies in which companies roll pollution control or prevention into economic decisions. In the long run, the turn to process changes may hurt sales for his industry he noted by replacing end-of-pipe technologies with internal process modifications Some administration actions have helped the environmental marketplace, Ferrier added. For instance, the Clinton administra-
EPA Administrator Carol Browner and Vice President Al Gore (Photo courtesy of S.C. Delaney, U.S. EPA) than the previous 12 years. During her tenure, Browner said EPA was under its "single greatest attack" from a hostile Congress that temporarily shut down EPA and cut its budget, resulting in fewer inspections and stalled cleanups. She credited President Clinton with protecting EPA and environmental laws through vetoes real and threatened. —JEFF JOHNSON
tion, he noted, was the first to recognize the environmental technology industry as an industry. It also provided unity with the White House and Commerce and State Departments to encourage development of environmental technologies and their export. Also recognizing administration support was Bowers, who applauded EPA staff willingness to explore alternatives in her experiences with Project XL. She credited them with inventiveness and willingness to dedicate "huge
"It is time to quit fussing around with pilot programs and to change statutes." Resources
Terry for the
Davies, Future
amounts of resources." However, EPA offices have failed to integrate pollution prevention into their policies, she said, adding that state programs, especially New Jersey's, are far more effective. Bowers joined others in saying EPA has been hobbled by media specific statutes, and she endorsed a congressional push to give EPA statutory authority to allow multimedia approaches for pil fit" prograiiTJ
Browner's reform efforts on the Common Sense Initiative to draw community groups into conference with industry earned kudos from an unlikely source: William Sanjour, a 23-year EPA employee, agency critic, and whistleblower. Sanjour is a big supporter of the initiative. "This is the wave of the future. Have the people most affected by the decisions industry and communities thrash out a solution. Leave EPA bureaucrats out of it" However, one of Sanjour's occasional allies, Lois Gibbs, executive director of Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste and community leader at New York's Love Canal, disagreed with the value of the pilot program. "We get the benefit of seeing information we normally never see during negotiations, but this doesn't give us power." The negotiating parties have opposite and distinct goals and these will remain Gibbs said Instead, she urged EPA to be a leader and take "courageous stands" as she said it has by moving ahead with the dioxin reassessment despite great pressure from industry. For communities, Gibbs said, EPA must expand its view to a 20-year horizon of controlling pollution, not a "fouryear tunnel that never looks beyond the next election." JEFF JOHNSON
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