Nixon Starts the Cleanup

In a special message to Congress last week, President Nixon began to battle in earnest for protection of the U.S. environment. His previous talk about the problem had sounded somewhat hollow. Even his new Council on Environmental Quality had appeared toothless; his recent ban on pollution by federal facilities seemed unenforceable. By sharp contrast, the President's message last week contained 14 executive orders and 23 requests for legislative acts. Tough, direct and specific, it surprised all White House watchers.

It was also a political master stroke that cut through dozens of Democrat-sponsored environmental bills already proposed or on the books. In effect, the President said that no one is yet certain how to cure all pollution, but that his Administration will now seek the best available answers. Wherever conflicting interests arise--for example, between agricultural pollution and productivity--Nixon called for thorough study by the Council on Environmental Quality. His Democratic critics felt co-opted, to say the least. As one Senate staff expert put it: "We recognize a lot of the proposals as our own. But there's no use whining; we ought to support the program."

$10,000 a Day. Nixon's message, under preparation for six months, was clearly knowledgeable. Instead of attacking water pollution in individual localities, for example, the President considered whole river-basin systems. He pledged $4 billion in federal funds over the next five years to help municipalities build 1,500 new sewage-treatment plants and improve 2,500 existing facilities. The towns and cities will have to raise another $6 billion in matching funds, but they can expect assistance from a new Environmental Financing Authority. If Congress approves, this agency will issue its own federal bonds to buy the local bonds that cities with poor credit cannot sell on the open market.*

Despite his usual advocacy of strong state and local government, Nixon asked Congress to set nationwide federal standards for air and water purity. Reason: Pollution is "no respecter of political boundaries." He also proposed faster federal legal procedures to penalize industrial and municipal polluters, set fines for persistent offenders at a maximum $10,000 a day, and called for new power to obtain court injunctions forcing polluters to stop operations completely.

No More Lead. While Detroit winced, Nixon focused on the automobile, which causes at least half of U.S. air pollution. He directed the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to establish new standards to control auto emissions in 1973 and 1975 models. One proposal for meeting these standards: remove lead additives from gasoline. As a result, automakers will have to reduce engine horsepower, and gasoline will cost more (see BUSINESS). But the rules will reduce the toxic substances that autos now spew into the U.S. air each year--notably 350 million pounds of lead, 12 million tons of hydrocarbons and 66 milion tons of carbon monoxide.

"Few of America's eyesores are so unsightly as its millions of junk automobiles," continued the President. He noted that it is now cheaper to abandon old cars in city streets and fields than to take them to wreckers. A possible solution, Nixon said, would be to include the cost of disposing of a car in its purchase price --which would entail yet another increase in the cost of a car.

Turning to problems of land conservation, the President called for an inventory of all 750 million acres of federally owned property. He wants to review which holdings should be opened up as parks and recreational areas and which should be sold so that other lands may be purchased for the public weal.

Room for Criticism. Despite the President's vigorous tone and concrete proposals, the message invited some criticism. No mention was made of the danger of oil pollution from proliferating offshore wells, or the environmentally absurd SST, with its sonic boom and probable pollution of the stratosphere. Nixon offered no proposals for curbing exhaust from the 83 million old cars now on the roads. Moreover the President paid little attention to the key problem of enforcement. Last fall, for example, the Federal Government announced that DDT must soon be phased out of use in the U.S. But delaying actions by farmers and manufacturers are likely to keep the persistent pesticide in use for years to come.

Despite such shortcomings, the President's message highlights the complex issues that Americans now must confront. At the very least, it should serve to tell skeptics that environmental problems are real, and will not just go away. If Congress responds, the U.S. can begin coherent action on a scale that few dreamed possible even a month ago.

*One flaw: the federal agency probably could not override state, regional or local bonding statutes. In consequence, any municipality that reached the legal limit of its bonding capacity might still be unable to build even desperately needed treatment plants.

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