POLICY PAPER
This 5"—ol—n-n* t~ F^A InSight contains up-to-date policy information
-( nti Administrator to all EPA employees.
Innovation At EPA
EPA-N-175-93-020
July 1993
(Below is an address by Administrator Carol Browner
to the newly-created Environmental Business Council
on June 8, 1993:)
I would like to congratulate the Environmental
Business Council for breathing life into an idea just
when we most need it. More than ever, this country
needs to forge partnerships between business and
government, partnerships infused with a common
belief in environmentally-sustainable economic
development. More than ever, this country needs to
compete successfully in a global marketplace. More
than ever, this country needs a dynamic envirotech
industry committed to innovation and poised to
expand. The Environmental Business Council of the
United States promises to do all this and more. It's an
idea whose time has come, and I applaud all of you
who have helped it spring to life.
....We in the Clinton administration support your
objectives wholeheartedly. We believe in a
government that supports American businesses and
works to create American jobs. We have faith in the
ability of American companies to compete successfully
in the global marketplace, if the playing field is level.
Most important, we believe that economic growth and
environmental protection are not only compatible,
they're mutually reinforcing. And the best proof
would be a domestic, booming, job-creating, cost-
cutting, world-leading envirotech industry.
This administration is not disinterested in who
wins the international economic competition. We will
not sit idly by as abstract economic forces choose who
has a job and who doesn't. Make no mistake about it:
when it comes to the sale of environmental technology
in a highly competitive international market, we want
you to win. And President Clinton will do everything
he can to help you win.
Today I want to talk about what EPA is doing to
help. And I want you to tell me, today and in the
weeks ahead, what more EPA could do.'
There is one key aspect of your industry that EPA
is especially interested in promoting—and that's
innovation. All of you would agree, I'm sure, that
innovation will be one of the single most important
factors affecting your future success—both as
individual businesses and as a unified industry. In
this sense, the envirotech industry is no different from
any other. Whether you're selling computers,
telecommunications equipment, mass transit systems,
or environmental services and clean-up technologies,
you'd better have a leading-edge product or you're
likely to miss the sale.
At EPA, we support technological innovation for
environmental problems that current technology
simply isn't capable of solving, except at huge, and
perhaps prohibitive, cost. The cleanup of hazardous
waste sites is a good example. If you multiply the
typical cost of past cleanups by the number of
potential sites needing remediation, total costs soon
run into what the late Senator Everett Dirksen used to
call "real money:" as much as a trillion dollars or
more, according to one study.
As world population and economic activity
expand, innovative technologies will be absolutely
essential. Without innovation, a doubling of the global
population and quintupling of economic activity could
sharply increase global pollutant loadings. Thus, the
success of your industry—the widespread use of your
products and services—is crucial to human and
ecosystem health on a global scale. In short, your
industry needs to spur innovation out of self
interest—your self interest in making profits, gaining
market share, and selling your products and services
overseas.
But, innovation is also crucial because we simply
won't be able to attain this nation's—or the
world's—environmental goals without it. A strong,
innovative envirotech industry is vital to our
environmental future.
That's why I look forward to working with this
association and its member companies, and that's why
innovation is central to EPA's mission. We not only
want to see innovations in existing pollution control
and clean-up technologies, we look forward to
innovations in system design, production processes,
and management practices that minimize the need for
control or cleanup. We expect innovations that
improve energy efficiency, and innovations that reduce
the pollution generated by agricultural practices and
transportation systems. And we are personally
committed to innovations in the way EPA does
business, innovations that foster and support
businesses like yours.
EPA's regulations have been widely, and justly,
credited with driving the development and use of
technologies that now are considered "state of the art"
in this country and abroad, Some U.S. environmental
laws, in fact, require EPA literally to define "state of
the art" pollution control technologies. But, over the
past two decades, we've learned that our regulations
-------
sometimes can have an inadvertent, pernicious effect of creating North American Commissions on the
on technology development. By defining "state of the Environment and Labor, whose principal functions
art," we can freeze innovation in its tracks. No one has would be to ..strengthen cooperation on labor and
an incentive to do more than the government requires, environmenta^jrotectiqrl, a:n<3 to improve?eniorj:ement
So, the Clinton administration is going to push at of and compliancy :vvjith.;-Qpr respective, laWs-and
every turn for regulatory innovation that fosters regulations. I |?elieve. tlial giving the Environmental
technological innovation. Commission || ^s|i|}hg :4r|^estiga^fre ^function will
As we work on the reauthorization of Superfund, inspire public confidence that the NAFTA'parties' will
the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, strive for high levels of environmental compliance and
we're going to follow the example of the Clean Air enforcement. Our challenge is to create commissions
Act, especially the acid rain provisions that set that respect national sovereignty and that can pursue
environmental targets and then gave industry an goals that none of the nations of North America can do
incentive to find the cheapest ways to hit them. As we alone. We understand, however, that many in the
review our environmental rules and regulations, we're environmental community believe that our proposed
going to look for opportunities to encourage side agreement does not go far enough. 1 am
technological innovations that generate profits for you, confident that we will successfully resolve their
strengthen the American economy, and protect the concerns.
environment more efficiently. The President has proposed a new, EPA-led
We're also going to do a better job helping your environmental technology initiative in his FY 1994
industry bring fledgling innovations out of the budget. This initiative would be funded at $36 million
research lab and into the real world of practical in FY 1994, with an expected $1.8 billion to be spent on
applications. As you know only too well, this the program over the next nine years. Under this
step—from lab to field—can make or break a new idea, initiative, EPA—working with several other federal
It can make or break the company that invests in it. agencies—would help private businesses overcome
At EPA, we already have set up a number of impediments to the use of innovative technologies both
programs to help shepherd technological innovations here and abroad—impediments such as insufficient
into the field: our SITE Program that evaluates the capital, uncertain performance capability, poor
performance of Superfund remediation technologies information flow from technology developers to
under field conditions...our joint research and technology users, the lack of facilities to test new
development agreements under the Federal technologies, and regulatory barriers. This is a tall
Technology Transfer Act...our support for the National order, but we're committed to it, we've already started
Environmental Technology Applications Center in it, and we look forward to your participation.
Pittsburgh, which facilitates the commercialization of There's a lot more I could mention—the expansion
promising environmental technologies. All this is a of EPA's pollution prevention programs, the
good beginning, but we have to do more. We will do President's executive orders requiring the purchase of
more. energy-efficient products, and the formation of the
I intend to expand EPA's collaborative efforts with Clean Car Consortium with the Big Three U.S. auto
other federal agencies to test innovative clean-up companies. But, the message is unmistakable. This
technologies at federal facilities. I intend to establish administration is intent on fostering innovation in our
procedures that allow EPA labs to be used to test and national efforts to protect the environment...regulatory
evaluate innovative technologies developed outside innovation...design and process
EPA. I intend to expand the Agency's cooperative innovation...technological innovation. We are intent
programs for developing, testing, and evaluating on helping your industry gain market share abroad
specific categories of innovative technologies. and create new jobs at home. We are intent on
EPA is also a part of several multi-agency building a strong economy that grows in harmony
initiatives that have been established by the Clinton with a healthy environment.
administration. These initiatives, in one way or So, at EPA, we welcome the birth of the
another, are all meant to support a dynamic, domestic Environmental Business Council of the United States.
envirotech industry. On Earth Day, for example, the I look forward to hearing your ideas on how we can
President asked the Department of Commerce to lead better link the health of your industry with
a multi-agency effort to increase exports of U.S. environmental health. We've got a big job to do. Let's
environmental technologies. EPA and the Department get on with it. Thank you.
of Energy also will be involved....
....[As for NAFTA], based on the discussions
thus far, there is a clear agreement on the merit
Tfe& Polity Paper Is available on Email As ano&er step toward polbtioo p?ev$ijfio« tkoagfa paper ?eda£to, &xe topy of this
papat will 1)6 provided fi)f evpry two employees. Employees are eneoomged to share tfcek copies wiiii ofher employee?
&H have access
------- |