Friends of the Earth

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

During mid-October EPA Director Anne Gorsuch appeared at congressional hearings and skillfully dodged questions about the agency's 1983 budget . . . claiming that discussion was premature. Yet EPA memoranda indicate that the agency may lose as much as 60% of its purchasing power by 1983. Worse yet, such massive cuts would come at a time when the agency's workload is expected to double because of recently enacted legislation concerning toxic chemicals.

In fact, concern over those budget cuts has led both the Senate and the House to hold hearings examining Ms. Gorsuch's plans for the EPA, and Representative James Florio of New Jersey has called for Ms. Gorsuch to resign. [EDITOR'S NOTE: As this story goes to press, the unofficial results of the New Jersey gubernatorial race between Mr. Florio and Thomas Kean indicate that Kean has won the office. According to the New Jersey Public Relations Gubernatorial Office, out of 2.3 million votes cast, there is only a 1,600-vote difference between the two candidates. Barring any court action, the recount of the votes should be finished, and an official announcement made of the winner, by December 1, 1981.] It's likely that members of Congress will be keeping a close watch over any future EPA action, but the effectiveness of their scrutiny will depend largely on whether the legislators feel that their constituents want a strong Environmental Protection Agency.

WATT IN THE WORLD

On October 19 the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and the Massachusetts Audubon Society dumped petitions bearing 1,100,000 signatures on the Capitol steps . . . calling for the removal of Interior Secretary James Watt. At an on-the-spot press conference, leaders of the various groups stressed that they would make sure the environmental policies of the Reagan administration would be major issues in the 1982 elections.

This threat could prove to be more than mere saber rattling, since several polls have shown that the public does support strong environmental protection . . . even at the expense of economic growth. A recent Harris poll, for example, found that 72% of the people who voted for Ronald Reagan, and 76% of the people who consider themselves political conservatives, oppose any relaxation of the Clean Air Act (now up for renewal in Congress).

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print