Big fights over the environment loom in Congress

February 15, 1997
Web posted at: 11:00 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- One of the first issues to come before the 105th Congress this year was Superfund reform.

Senate Republicans are pushing a bill they say would streamline cleanups, give states more authority and exempt small businesses from liability.

Also on the docket: nuclear waste. A Senate bill would allow a temporary storage facility to be built at Yucca Mountain, the Nevada Desert site where a permanent nuclear waste dump may be built some day.

The bill is pretty much the same as the one President Clinton threatened to veto last year.

Fight over clean air rules

Congress also is taking a look at clean air rules. The EPA is proposing new limits on smog and soot.

The American Lung Association and environmental groups like that idea. They say cleaner air would help children. The elderly and people with asthma would breathe more easily -- and thousands of lives a year would be saved.

"It's not about backyard barbecues and lawnmowers," Carol Browner, EPA administrator, said. "It is not as was heard on the radio this morning about burning firewood on the Fourth of July, Mr. Chairman. This is about whether our children will be able to go outside on the Fourth of July and enjoy those fireworks."

The EPA is scheduled to issue new clean air rules this summer. But Congress is holding hearings on the standards and could block them from being implemented.

"I think it's appropriate to ask whether the proposed standards for ozone and particulate matter are the right measures, or if they go too far, if they overload the Clean Air Act," U.S. Sen. John Chafee, a Republican from Rhode Island and the chairman of the Environment Committee, said. "Frankly, there is reason to be worried about how the Clean Air Act is functioning."

Many industry groups are lobbying against higher air quality standards. They say the cost would be too high -- and the benefits unclear.

White House agenda

At the White House, environmental plans are brewing too.

President Clinton's proposed budget would hike spending on environmental programs by 12 percent.

Of course, there's no guarantee Congress will go along with that.

Here are the details:

• A proposed penny-a-pound tax on sugar would raise money to help clean up the Florida Everglades. The National Park Service would get a 5.7 percent raise.

• Mining companies would have to pay a five percent royalty on minerals extracted from federal land. The money would go restoring land and water damaged by mines.

The National Mining Association backs the plan, but some environmentalists have said the fee is too low.

On the campaign trail, President Clinton talked often about the environment, and Al Gore, who has a long-standing interest in green issues, has his eye on the White House.

Whether the executive duo can translate talk into action remains to be seen.

Related stories:

• AllPolitics - Clinton pushes toxic site clean-up - August 28, 1996
• Plants recruited to clean up toxins - April 27, 1996
• AllPolitics - Democrats Warn Of Veto Over Environment - April 17, 1996
• Clinton proposes tax incentive plan for toxic sites - March 11, 1996

Related sites:

• The White House
• Natural Resources Defense Council Web
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/National Institutes of Health - Superfund Basic Research Program

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