YEAR-END REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF EPA



              fron Russell E. Train, Administrator



                        December 31, 1974






     This year-end report provides me with a welcome opportunity as



Administrator to communicate directly with each member of EPA.  One



of the most unfortunate aspects of my job is the fact that I have so



little chance to meet and talk personally with the people who make



this Agency work.  I find this particularly frustrating because I



know what extraordinary talent, creativity and commitment we pos-



sess at all levels of our Agency.  It is the job each of you does



personally that makes all the difference in the success of the Agency.



I am grateful to each of you.  High performance throughout the Agency



reflects the recognition at all levels of the vital nature of EPA's



mission.



     Another frustration — pervasive, I suspect, in top management



jobs both in and out of government — is the increasing difficulty



of finding time for looking ahead, for identifying the broader



social and economic implications of programs, for developing value



systems which alone can make actions or analysis truly purposeful,



or most simply just finding time for thinking.  The issues and



problems demanding decision press upon you at a faster and faster



rate.  The flood of paper consumes your evenings and weekends.  The



days are filled with meetings — meetings with your own key staff,



Congressional hearings, interagency meetings on energy or other



pressing problems, meetings with various public interest groups,



meetings with industrial, agricultural and labor groups, meetings




with the press, even meetings to brief you on the next meeting.

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In between, you travel, to meet and speak with groups in every corner



of the country and occasionally abroad.  (I often think that we must



increasingly substitute communication by satellite and computer for the



endless conferences that afflict us.  Perhaps growing energy constraints



will help promote this development.)  Of course, one must not discount



the fact that travel time is about the only time you can really read,



even read books.



     The point of this recitation is not to elicit sympathy, because all



of you are beset to some degree by this deeply troubling frustration of



our time, a condition which is clearly getting worse rather than better.



Management and administration is rapidly becoming a matter of "keeping



things moving," and "getting the job done."  A position such as mine



is sometimes described in the press as a "top policy job."  I guess what



I am trying to say is that there is damn little time to come to grips



with policy in the broadest sense of the term.



     This particular frustration is another reason why I welcome the



opportunity afforded by this year-end report to step back from the



job a bit, to take stock and to look ahead — even if in fairly brief



and imperfect a fashion.  (Characteristically, I guess, I am writing



these opening paragraphs over the Atlantic, heading for Moscow and



a four-day meeting of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Joint Committee on Environmental



Cooperation.)



     You might think from what I have said so far that I am dissatisfied



with my job.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I have loved

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every minute of the fifteen or more months since I came to EPA.



They have been exciting months, months in which our environmental



programs have been maturing at the same time as we have been confront-



ed by the energy crisis and deepening economic problems.  It has been



a time full of controversy, to be sure, but it has not been petty



controversy.  The issues have been and continue to be very real and



basic to our society and its future well-being.  That is why EPA is



such a challenging place to be.  We are at the center of the currents



of change that we all sense to be moving deeply and forcefully through-



out the world.



     Let me say, first, that we have been making positive progress



in reversing past trends of environmental deterioration.  I say



this in full recognition of the fact that we have hardly more



than begun the task.  New problems confront us almost faster than



we can solve the old ones.  The longer range world problems of



population growth, food, economic development, and resource



allocation, among others, seem intractable.  Yet, without in any way



underestimating the difficulties ahead, I think it is important to



recognize the progress we have made.



     Over a very short period of time — short in relation to the



historic periods in which our environmental problems have been



generated — we have made excellent progress in developing a strong



institutional base for effective environmental management.  Since 1968,

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at the Federal level, we have created the Environmental Protection Agency;



we have brought into being a Council on Environmental Quality; we have



created the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; we have seen



the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act and the institutional-



ization of environmental impact analysis throughout the planning and



decision-making process of government; we have seen passage of such



important legislation as the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, the Resource



Recovery Act of 1970, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments



of 1972, the Noise Control Act of 1972, the Marine Protection, Research



and Sanctuary Act. of 1972, the new pesticides regulatory authority



embodied in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act



of 1972, the Endangered Species Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act



of 1972, the Port and Waterways Safety Act of 1972, the Endangered



Species Act of 1969 and its 1972 amendments, the Marine Mammal Protection



Act of 1972, and just recently the Safe Drinking Water Act.  Never



before in history has a society moved so rapidly and so comprehensively



to come to grips with such a complex set of problems.



     At the State and local level across the nation, similar develop-



ments have been taking place in legislation, ordinances, and governmental



organization.  Indeed, as you know, we have been looking to State and



local governments to share more and more in the responsibility of



implementing and enforcing our various environmental programs.  I



consider this active intergovernmental partnership a key to the future



success of our environmental efforts.

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     Around the globe, country after country has established new



governmental mechanisms for more effective environmental management.



Departments and ministries of environment are now comrnonplace.  These



have been important not only in terms of furthering internal environ-



mental improvement in the particular countries but in providing focal



points for more effective environmental cooperation internationally.



     Over the past three years, we have seen the conclusion and continuing



implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement with Canada



(1972), the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm  (1972),



the agreement at Moscow on a U.S.-U.S.S.R. comprehensive joint program



of environmental cooperation (1972), the agreement at London on an ocean



dumping convention (1972), the agreement at Paris on the World Heritage



Trust convention (1972), the agreement at Washington to limit and control



trade in endangered species (1973), the agreement at London on the Convention



to Prevent Pollution of the Seas by Vessels (1973), and the bilateral agree-



ments for environmental cooperation with the Federal Republic of Germany



and with Poland (1974) .



     The U.N. Environmental Program has been established at Nairobi.  In



addition, there is continuing activity within the environment committee



of The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development  (OECD) at



Paris, the Committee on the Challenges of a Modern Society  (CCMS) of



NATO, the Law of the Sea meetings, other international organizations



such as WHO, WMO, FAO, and UNESCO, as well as bilateral cooperation



with Japan, Mexico and other nations, in addition to those already



named.

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     EPA has actively supported all of these efforts to strengthen



international environmental cooperation.  Whether at Washington head-



quarters, our regional offices, or our labs, many of you have been



making major contributions to the success of this effort.  I



know this has often meant extra effort above and beyond your normal



job.  I commend you for your willingness to make that extra contribution.



Our resources for international work are limited, and we must neces-



sarily give first priority to our domestic responsibilities.  Yet



the problems of the environment are global.  There is no way that



any of us can "go it alone" environmentally.  We are all part of a



world natural system — the biosphere — and the continued healthy



functioning of that system is the fundamental prerequisite for all



human activity and, indeed, our ultimate survival.  I firmly believe



that the United .States should give strong and positive leadership



in international environmental matters — not to tell others what



to do but to share our knowledge and to help strengthen international



environmental cooperation.  Within that context and consistent with



statutory and budgetary requirements, I expect and want EPA to continue



its active and effective participation in the international environ-



mental area.



     I have been speaking thus far of institutional changes at the



governmental level.  Certainly of equal and very likely of greater



importance have been the changes in the private sector.  Industry



is making very substantial investments in pollution abatement — on



the order of $6.5 billion in 1974 — investments which have generally

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not been voluntary, but made in response to regulatory requirements,



actual or anticipated.  At the same time, environmental considerations



are more and more becoming a regular part of business planning and



decision making.  And more and more businesses are finding profit making



opportunities in pollution abatement.



     Our legal institutions — thanks in large part to the creative



work of the public interest law firms — have pioneered new approaches



to the solution of environmental problems.  Indeed, the courts have



often been out front of other government institutions in this regard.



Court orders have helped overcome bureaucratic inertia and resistance.



And, of course, EPA itself has not been immune from such court orders.



At times, we have been required by such orders to move at an administrative



pace which may have outstripped our ability to do as carefully considered



and well-managed a job as we would like.  On balance, however, the



influence of the courts has been very positive.  Responsible citizen



action through the judicial process is an effective and often needed



tool for holding bureaucratic feet to the fire.



     Citizen action through a wide variety of private environmental



organizations, whether national, regional, or local in nature, has



been the moving force in bringing about environmental reform.  It is



essential that the vitality of this effort be maintained and strengthened.



At this time of economic stringency, it is a matter of great concern



to me that financial support of private environmental organizations be



sustained.  I strongly hope that private foundations will not reduce their



support in this vital area.

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     In a very real sense, the environmental movement in this country



can be said to have come of age over the past year.  Despite the fact



that we have been sorely beset with energy and economic difficulties



at precisely the time when the financial and other impacts of our



environmental programs were beginning to be felt, the commitment



of the American people to environmental progress remained firm.  Our



strong environmental laws — in particular, the Clean Air Act — have



withstood strenuous and sustained efforts to weaken them.  And if



anybody had any doubts about how high the environment ranks among



the concerns of the American people, the recent elections should



dispel them.  Wherever the environment was a prominent or pivotal



issue, the electorate came down rather emphatically on the side



of environmental protection, irrespective of party.



     Even without the external pressures imposed upon us by our



energy and economic problems, the short deadlines and the sheer



weight and complexity of our workload would have made the past year



a difficult one.  This is obvious, for example, in our air programs.



The Transportation Control Plans, the Indirect Sources and Significant



Deterioration Regulations, the New Source Performance Standards, the



Regulations for Light-Duty Diesel Trucks and for Motorcycles, the



Motor Vehicle Gas Mileage Labeling Program, the Regulations on Low-Lead



Gasoline, the Air Quality Maintenance Plans, the Assessment of National



Air Quality Trends, the Regulations on the Registration of Fuels, the



Hearings and other efforts concerning stack gas scrubbers for controlling

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                                -9-



sulfur oxide emissions from power plants — even this incomplete



list of actions during the past year under our air program suggests



the magnitude of the effect we were required to undertake.



     We have also made major strides in water, pesticides and solid



waste.  In water, we went a long way toward breaking the log-jam



in the construction grants program — awarding almost $3 billion



in grants and reimbursements to cities and towns between September



1973 and August 1974.  As of the end of the year, substantially all



major dischargers were on a clean-up schedule under the National



Pollutant Discharge Elimination Program  (NPDES), and State assumption



of responsibility for this program had reached 40 percent.  We made



substantial progress toward eliminating ocean disposal of those wastes



that threaten the marine environment.  Over forty dischargers were



eliminated, and an additional twenty are scheduled for elmination



by 1977.  The number of ocean disposal sites in active use have been



reduced from 100 to 11.  We have now issued effluent guidelines for



30 major industrial categories, and we are well on the way to meet-



ing the 1977 and 1983 industrial discharge goals.  Of particular



significance were:  (1) the increasing role of the states both in



the inception and in the implementation of our water programs and



plans — a role whose increase we must and will continue to encourage



in every way we can, and (2) the move to assess the overall environ-



mental, social and economic impact of waste water treatment con-



struction as well as to integrate the planning, siting and timing



of such construction — including interceptors — with state and



local land use planning.

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     In pesticides — also in the first full year of funding —



we constructed much of the basic framework of regulations and guide-



lines governing the regulation of pesticides after 1976.  We proposed



regulations for the re-registration of some 33,000 pesticide products



sold in interstate commerce, for registration for the first time of



the estimated 14,000 pesticides marketed in intrastate commerce, and



for the classification of all pesticides into either "general" or "re-



stricted" use categories.  These regulations were developed during the



course, and as a result, of extensive interchange with environmental



groups, pesticide users and manufacturers, and the scientific community.



The final regulations should be issued early in 1975, with Registration



Guidelines which spell out registration criteria following shortly there-



after.  In October 1976, pesticides classified as restricted may be used



only by certified pesticide applicators.  We have promulgated minimum



standards for certification and are now giving substantial technical



assistance to the states to help in training and certifying an estimated



2.75 million farmers and 110,000 cormiercial applicators.  The establish-



ment of a corps of certified applicators will permit the continued



availability of valuable pesticides to those who are fully qualified



to use them without endangering the nation's public or environmental



health.



     After formal hearings that began on August 1973, and a careful



weighing of the evidence, I suspended in October 1974 all future



manufacture of the pesticides Aldrin and Dieldrin on the grounds that

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                                -li-



the evidence of their potential to cause cancer in man was too strong



to permit their continued use.  In November, 1974, I issued a formal



Notice of Intent to Cancel for two other major pesticides — Heptachlor



and Chlordane.



     The energy crisis, together with our economic difficulties,



underscored and enhanced the importance of an all-out effort to expand



and improve our ability to recover energy from solid waste.  EPA has



identified 50 major metropolitan areas where materials and energy



recovery is feasible.  These areas account for about 66 million annual



tons of waste, or more than half of the municipal waste stream.  We



will continue to try to help these areas make the most of their waste



recovery potential.  Scheduled for completion and evaluation next



year are two major resource recovery demonstration projects — one



using shredded waste as a coal substitute in a St. Louis utility



boiler and the other converting solid waste to generate steam for



use by a utility in Baltimore.  A San Diego demonstration project



producing a fuel oil from solid waste will be underway next year.



Through these and every other means available to us, we will continue



to encourage the reduction and recovery of wastes.



     In my confirmation hearings before the Senate, I emphasized



my conviction that the Agency's standards and regulations can



only be as sound or as strong as the scientific foundation which



supports them.  The continued strengthening of our research and

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                                -12-



development effort, particularly in the area of health effects, remains,



in my judgment, a matter of the highest priority.  We undertook,



over the past year, an intensive review of the management procedures



in our Office of Research and Development, which included, at my request,



an independent assessment of those procedures by a cottnittee of the



National Academy of Sciences.  As a result of this review, we are



presently at work trying to simplify and streamline R&D management



procedures in ways that will enable the Agency to take far more



effective advantage of its able and dedicated scientists.



     With the basic regulatory machinery increasingly in place, the



work of the enforcement division continues to grow in size and



significance.  During the past year, for example, the suits filed



against EPA, and EPA's own enforcement actions in water, were fifteen



times the number of the preceding year.  The next year and succeeding



years will see not only substantial increases in legal and adminis-



trative enforcement activity, but an accelerated and more and more



sophisticated monitoring and surveillance effort.



     These diverse program activities and achievements only suggest the



scope and sweep of important work    being carried out within the Environ-



mental Protection Agency.  I have not, for example, described the critical



assignments and very real progress the Agency has made in addressing prob-




lems of noise, radiation, ocean dumping, evaluating environmental impact



statements, or enforcing equal opportunity requirements.  The point I

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wish to make is that the work of EPA includes all these elements and



many more, and we are moving ahead as a total Agency because of the



talent and constant effort of people who work in every one of these



program areas.



     In sum, we have made good progress in administering an extra-



ordinarily complex set of statutes and regulations which will have



far-reaching impacts upon the entire fabric of our society.  And



we are already starting to see some results.



     Recent reports show, for example, that the air in the Philadelphia



area has become substantially cleaner in the last few years.  In



Chicago, sulfur oxides have been reduced by 70 percent over the past



six years, and levels are now below the 1975 Federal ambient standard.



And concentrations of BOD (biochemical oxygen demand), COD  (chemical



oxygen demand), bacteria and suspended solids have greatly diminished



in 22 major water bodies which drain about 70 percent of our nation's



land.



     The importance, even urgency, of continuing this progress is



underscored by the increasing evidence of the hazards to human health



caused by pollution.  Scientists, for example, have recently uncovered



disturbing evidence that children — whom we had believed unaffected



in any lasting way — can contract chronic and acute disabilities



as a result of air pollution.  As many as 20 percent of children



in a city such as New York,  one study showed, can develop severe



and chronic respiratory diseases.  Another study in a southern city



with relatively heavy air pollution had similar results. Recent

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evidence of potential hazards in our drinking water is another case



in point.



     The more sophisticated and sensitive our monitoring devices



become, the more data we accumulate on the health effects of pollutants,



the worse things look.  Every year we introduce into the commercial



market hundreds of new chemical compounds often without any real idea,



any serious advance assessment, of their impact on public health.  Yet,



as we learned through our experience with vinyl chloride, we may not



discover how harmful a compound might be until years after it has



become a rather commonplace item in our every day life, even a signifi-



cant factor in our economy.  Until we set up a system of advance assess-



ment of these compounds — as would be established under the Toxic



Substances Control Act legislation which the Congress has failed to



pass —      we will, in effect, be permitting the people of this



country to serve as guinea pigs in a mindless experiment with



potentially tragic results for many.  I am hopeful that Congress



will give high priority to this overdue legislation in the next



session.



     The profound question that lies at the heart of this issue —



the question, really, that underlies such diverse actions as the



decision to deny a permit to E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. to



dispose of certain chemical wastes in the Gulf of Mexico, the decision



to suspend the manufacture of Aldrin and Dieldrin, and the unresolved



court case against Reserve Mining in Minnesota — is whether the full

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                                -15-



presumption of innocence must be extended to these products and



compounds unless it can be decisively demonstrated that they are not



harmful to humans, or whether we should from now on insist that the



presence or introduction of these products and compounds into the



human environment must depend upon a determination that they do



not constitute unwarranted hazards to human health and life.



Our answer to this question will serve as a most accurate measure



of our camdtment to a safe and sound environment.



     We are, as an Agency, far better equipped to meet the challenges



before us than we were a year ago.  We have, for one thing, learned



some rather valuable lessons.  Our experience with the transportation



control plans and similar measures has, I think, made us all acutely



aware of how vital it is — no matter how short our deadlines — to



get the people affected by our regulations and standards involved at



the very start of the process of putting these regulations and



standards together.  Many of our actions have a very real, sometimes



even wrenching, impact upon our society.  When EPA proposes trans-



portation control plans for our cities, or rules designed to prevent



any significant deterioration of air quality in the nation, it is



dealing with very basic economic, social and institutional



factors that affect all aspects of our society.  Such proposals have



important implications for the way of life and the patterns of



behavior of individuals, families and communities across the



country.  It is essential that, in the creation as in the carrying out of



such proposals, we involve the public to the greatest extent possible.

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This was the path we followed in putting together the court-ordered



regulations on significant deterioration regulations, and we must



continue to follow it.



     The task of establishing and maintaining effective communications



with those outside of EPA is one we irust all work at constantly.  Ob-



viously, there are occasions — for example, in the enforcement area —



where an "arm's length" posture must be maintained.  In the normal



case, however, there should be open and effective communication well



in advance of proposed actions with those who will be most directly



affected.  It has been my observation that the failure to do this



conscientiously usually leads to misunderstandings that would have



been avoided, unnecessary opposition, and overall delay.  In addition



to communication with regard to specific actions, it is important



to maintain regular contact as a matter of course with Federal



agency counterparts, State and local governments, as well as with



business, agriculture, labor and public interest groups.  Likewise,



in the research area, it is vital that we be open to and actively seek



a free flow of information and ideas from other researchers in both



the public and private sectors.  Beyond all this, every single



employee of the Agency can and should at all times maintain a



spirit of responsiveness and helpfulness in all contacts with others.



Let none of us forget that we are at all times the servants of the



public.

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     At one point in "Plain Speaking," his oral biography of Harry

Truman, Merle Miller asks:  "Mr. President, it's been said that

the Presidency is the most powerful office in the world.  Do you

think that's true?"

     Mr. Truman responds:

          Oh, no.  Oh, my, no.  About the biggest power the
     President has, and I've said this before, is the power to
     persuade people to do what they ought to without having
     to be persuaded.  There are a lot of other powers written
     in the Constitution and given to the President, but its
     that power to persuade people to do what they ought to do
     anyway that's the biggest.  And if the man who is President
     doesn't understand that, if he thinks he's too big to do the
     necessary persuading, then he's in for big trouble, and so
     is the country.

     EPA has been granted rather extensive authorities as a result of

Congressional and court decisions.  I hope that, as a result of our

experience over the past year, we have learned well the lesson that

all the statutory and court-ordered authority in the world is worth

nothing if, by the means and manner in which we carry them out, we do

not continue to demonstrate to the people of this country that we deserve

their support — to demonstrate that we are not, in fact, simply another

example of the arrogant and arbitrary exercise of bureaucratic power,

but rather that we are their own responsive and responsible instrument

for achieving a whole and a healthy environment.

     It became increasingly clear, over the past year, that EPA's

array of programs — especially in air, water and solid waste — would

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necessarily have a significant impact upon land use patterns in this



country.  I believe very deeply that, because land use decisions are



so critical in determining the quality and character of their lives,



the citizens of a given area or region, and their elected officials,



must have the strongest possible voice in those decisions.  I also



believe that those decisions cannot be based upon a single concern



or criterion — whether it be air quality, or housing, or economic



development.  They must, instead, embrace the broad social, economic



and ecological concerns and needs within an area or region.  It was



largely for these reasons that EPA — in the significant deterioration



regulations it recently issued — refused to impose, by federal fiat



and according to the single criterion of air quality, what would



amount to an almost absolute prohibition against growth over vast



regions of the nation.



     It is also largely for these reasons that I have established, in the



Office of the Administrator, two new offices:  a small land use coordina-



tion office and an office of intergovernmental and regional affairs.



Through these offices, and through our regional offices, we should be



able to do an increasingly better job of integrating our decisions into



the decision-making processes at the state, local and regional levels.



We are the most decentralized agency in the Federal government.  And



that, in my judgment, is one of our greatest sources of strength, for



it enables us, in carrying out our responsibilities, to fashion our

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regulations, standards and programs from the ground up, rather than



from the top down.



     We have gone a long way toward opening up our Agency and involv-



ing the public as well as officials at other levels of government in



our efforts.  We have also, in my judgment, demonstrated our willing-



ness to do whatever we reasonably and responsibly can to minimize the



adverse impacts of our regulations — on particular industries



as on particular cities, on the nation's economy as on the nation's



energy or food supply.



     There is every evidence that the public strongly supports our



environmental programs and will not be deceived into believing that



they are somehow responsible for any significant share of our energy



and economic difficulties.  Indeed, I think that as a result of our



experience over the past year or so the public has increasingly begun



to understand that our "environmental" and "pollution" problems are



not simply a separate and self-contained category to be dealt with



alongside and apart from other separate and self-contained categories of



problems such as energy, inflation, food supply and the like.  They have



begun to understand that our environmental concerns, in a very real



sense, underly and encompass a wide range of concerns such as energy,



inflation, resources, land use, population, food supply.  In great



degree, our problems in these areas are simply instances of the



classic environmental strains-that occur when an organism exceeds

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                                -20-



the carrying-capacity of its habitat.  They are symptoms of the



fact that, in one way or another, we are living beyond our means.



     We must, in my view, understand that if we consume our resources



at runaway rates, and in wasteful ways, then no matter how fast we



run, we must inevitably lose ground in our efforts to keep supply in



step with demand.  It makes little sense to throw the throttle



wide open in the development of our energy and other resources



when we waste so much of these resources.  In the unrestrained



development of these resources, haste really does make waste.



     We must build energy conservation measures and habits



into our economic system, and into our patterns of physical develop-



ment 'and growth.  We must also move to increase our supply of energy



— in particular, our supply of clean and renewable sources of energy.



At the same time, we must do all we can to put every possible ounce of



that energy to productive use and cut down and cut out the unnecessary



and inflationary waste within our system and society.



     For the foreseeable future, we are going to have to rely



mainly upon our supply of fossil fuels — coal, natural gas and oil.



In particular, we are going to have to mine and burn more coal.  The



more we do so, the more imperative it becomes that we not only refuse



to relax public health standards and environmental safeguards, but



insist even more strongly upon rigorous standards and safeguards



throughout the energy production and consumption cycle.

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     At the beginning of last year, I expressed my view that the



nation had better start facing up to the almost ove:rwhelming reality



of the long-range problems of energy, of food and resource supply,



of human numbers and of uncontrolled growth.  To begin to deal with



these problems — indeed, even to begin to ask the right questions —



we must develop effective institutions within the Federal government



for long-range analysis.  We were, I pointed out, almost totally



lacking in such a capability — an appalling lack in a nation with



as big a stake in the future as the United States.



     The really critical issues before this country are not the im-



mediate and isolated ones, but the interrelated and long-range ones —



indeed, the day-to-day "crises" that seem to capture all our attention



and consume all our energies are, for the most part, simply mani-



festations of far deeper problems that we never seem to get around



to acknowledging, must less addressing.  The old cliches that every-



thing relates to everything else and that we live in an interdependent



world have become the fundamental fact of our economic, social and



political life.  Our economic health and growth, our patterns of



settlement and physical development, our social stability and



strength — these both determine and depend upon a vast and intricate



system of material (including food), energy and environmental resources.



Under these conditions, we cannot hope to come to grips with the



issues before us unless we strengthen our ability to assess problems

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                                -22-



    programs, not simply in isolation, but in relation to each other;



not simply over the short term, but over the longer span of 10, 20 or



30 years.



     Without this capacity at the national level, we will never be



able to work the kinds of accommodations between demands for and



supplies of resources that will enable us to achieve stable and



sustainable levels and kinds of growth.  We often forget that time



itself has become one of our most critical resources.  It is not so



much coal, or oil, or natural gas that we must worry about running out of.



It is time — time to accomplish the necessary adjustments in our way of



life that will allow us to make the most of these resources as well as



the necessary investments in the cleaner sources of energy that will



enable us to live a decent life without denying it to those who follow



us.



     We live in a time when, in the fine phrase of Leonard Silk, the



long run has become the short run.  And we cannot forever get away



with acting on the basis of ignorance and expediency.  The day-to-day



crisis decisions that we make more and more limit our options for the



future; yet we make them with almost no understanding of how they



impact upon each other, much less of what their implications are over



the long-term.



     I do not believe the end of the world is at hand, but I do know



that the year 2000 is just around the corner.  If we expect to solve

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the problems of the 1980s and 1990s, we need to start now — as we



should have started some years ago to foresee and forestall the present



energy crisis.  To the degree that we fail to do so, we foreclose



the options open to us.



     In an age of resource scarcities and physical constraints,



we are going to have to be a lot more choosy than we have been in



the past.  We no longer have as much room for maneuver and margin for



error as we once did.  We are, in short, going to have to engage in



some serious long-range planning.



     With its new budget committees and the Office of Technology



Assessment, the Congress has at least the rudiments of the kind



of longer-range analytical capability I am thinking of.  But nowhere



in the Executive Branch is there any real capability for conducting



the kind of continuing and comprehensive census of the future that



we must have if we are to ensure that the day-to-day decisions we



make are, indeed, taking us in the directions we want to go.  It is,



in my view, a matter of the utmost importance that we create such a



capability within the national government.  Indeed, as our experience



over the past year has amply demonstrated, the development of such a



capability at EPA is a matter that must demand our best efforts over



the next year.



     I do not, as I suggested at the beginning, have much time



for leisurely reflection these days.  In those moments that do

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occur, I find myself more and more thinking of the early Greek

philosophers who believed that earth, air, water and fire were the

fundamental elements of matter, and of the myth of Prometheus who

stole fire from heaven and suffered such endless agony for his

pains.  I find myself thinking how ironic it would be if the primeval

Promethean sin should turn out to be, not man's theft of fire from

heaven, but his theft of fire from earth — his profligate use and

abuse of the earth's energy and other resources without regard for

the needs of future generations and without respect for the laws

and limits of the natural world.

     And I remember the passage I once ran across in the diary of the

fine Italian writer of more recent times, Cesare Pavese:

     Today, you saw that great hill with its hollows, its
     clump of trees, the brown, the blue, the houses, and
     you said:  'It is as it should be.'  That is enough
     for you.  It is a place that never changes.  Why
     look for any other?  Dwell among these things, let
     them enfold you, live on them, like air, like a
     trail of clouds.  No one knows that everything is
     here.

     We are learning that everything is here, on this earth; that on this

side of life at least, this earth is all we have; and that it will continue

to be enough for us only as long as we care enough for it to make it

last.

     Perhaps the greatest challenge we face, not just in this country

but globally, is the need to find new ways — to fashion, indeed, nothing

less than a whole new ethic — for taking into full account the long-

term costs of actions that bring short-term benefits.  To put it

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another way, we need to learn how to balance our own wants against



the needs of future generations.



     This challenge expresses, in large measure, what the environ-



mental movement — and our job — is all about.  I deeply admire and



appreciate all you have done to help meet this challenge and to get



its message across.  I look forward to working with you in the year



ahead.

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