Sweeping retreat on environment forging ahead in Washington, D.C.

Former Senators Muskie and Stafford join NRDC to warn congress against undermining 25 years of environmental success

supplied by the National Resources Defense Council

he senate leaders who moved Congress to enact its landmark environmental laws in the 1970s and 1980s joined the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in warning the public of the profound and damaging effects of environmental legislation now racing through Congress.

The bipartisan warning came as the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released Breach of Faith: How the Contract's Fine Print Undermines America's Environmental Success. The report documents the effects of HR 9, a key bill implementing the House leadership's Contract With America, on nineteen environmental statutes.

Breach of Faith first documents the bureaucratic obstacles that would be imposed on each environmental statute and reviews how those obstacles would apply to the 19 laws.

The key findings of Breach of Faith show that the Contract's legislation would:

Dismantle laws that have worked. HR9 will expressly override the health and environmental protection mandates of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Protection Act, and virtually all the other environmental laws. Had this law been in place, it would not have been possible to save the bald eagle from extinction, protect the ozone layer, remove lead from gasoline, clean up the sewage in our waters, or improve the air in our cities.
Block improvements to public health. HR9 creates new hurdles that will delay or block a long list of important health and environmental protections that are about to be proposed, including: Safe Drinking Water Act standards to control the pervasive parasite that made more than 400,000 people ill in Milwaukee in 1993; Clean Air Act standards to control toxic pollution from medical waste incinerators; safeguards to deter oil spills under the Oil Pollution Act; water pollution stndards for hazardous waste treatment facilities, and rules to protect food from contamination.
Pay polluters and bloat the deficit. The "takings" provisions would require taxpayers to pay billions of dollars in compensation for the costs of complying with health and environmental safeguards. These provisions would block implementation of numerous important laws, including: the Endangered Species Act, the wetlands protection provisions of the Clean Water Act, and the hazardous waste disposal requirements of the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act.
Give away the public's land. The "takings" provisions provide that, if the agency does not have adequate funds to provide for compensation for a "taking," the President will find the money elsewhere or award federal lands (Section 9002). This provision allows for unrestrained giveaway of protected federal lands, including, for example, lands in National Parks, Wildlife Refuges and Wilderness Areas.
Dramatically increase bureaucracy and litigation. HR9 creates an endless bureaucratic maze, where more than 20 new analyses are required before any government action. It creates numerous new opportunities for lawsuits, including challenges to the adequacy of each of the new analyses. EPA administrator Carol Browner has estimated that the EPA alone would need 980 new employees and more than $220 million just to comply with the risk assessment requirements.

"Some members of this Congress seem so eager to change Washington that they are losing sight of how damaging their changes can be to people's everyday lives," warned Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-ME), chairman of the Senate Environment Committee in the 1970s and lead author of the original clean air and water acts.

"The proposals before Congress today would overrun our nation's health, safety and environmental protections. They would halt 25 years of accomplishment and turn the clock back to the days when the special interests made the rules and the people absorbed the risks. The good old days weren't all that good when it came to smog, product safety and accidents on the job," Muskie said at the report's release.

"Anyone who remembers the condition of our rivers, air and land 25 years ago knows how much we have accomplished with our environmental laws and how much they have improved the quality of life for us all," commented Sen. Robert Stafford, Senate Environment Committee chairman in the 1980s, in a prepared statement sharply critical of HR9. "We should build on our accomplishments, not reverse them."

Gregory Wetstone, NRDC legislative director and editor of Breach of Faith said the report demonstrates specifically and thoroughly how this legislation would apply to key environmental laws. "In each case, the public would get more red tape, more litigation, more bureaucracy and far less protection. That is the reverse of this Congress's promises. It is a breach of faith to the American people," he said.

Key portions of HR9 have cleared the House Commerce and Judiciary committees. The full bill could reach the House as this issue goes to press.

"This legislation has been assembled so hurriedly and debated so little that members of Congress have no idea how much damage it will do. Certainly, the American people deserve this information," Wetstone said. "They also deserve to know how much we have achieved with our environmental laws. Without a full understanding of what we have, we cannot truly appreciate what may soon be lost."

Copies of Breach of Faith can be ordered from National Resources Defense Council Publications, 40 W. 20th Street, New York, NY 10011 for $7.50 per copy plus $1.45 postage and 7.25 % sales tax (CA residents only.) For more information, call (202) 783-7800.

To let your congressperson know how you feel about HR9, call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and ask to speak with your representative.

The NRDC is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the world's natural resources and ensuring a safe and healthy environment for all people.