The Nixon View

Flanked by some of his top aides, Richard Nixon last week unveiled what he called a "historic" document: the first annual report of the President's Council on Environmental Quality. What emerged from the three-month labor was basically a replay of familiar environmental concerns.

The report described air, water and thermal pollution, discussed population growth, and recommended that the Government establish a national land-use policy geared to population expansion. Among other recommendations: industries should be taxed to pay for pollution controls, but the main cost of depolluting the nation should be borne by the consumer.

Environmentalists praised Nixon and Council Chairman Russell Train* for presenting laymen with a concise and informative primer that will doubtless keep environmental concerns alive on Capitol Hill. But in the most important area --specific action and enforcement--the report seemed to founder in merely hortatory language.

For example, the council urged "continued research to determine the effects of low-level doses of radiation." But research by whom? As for air pollution, the report was almost baffling. It called for "evaluating" current procedures for auto emission controls and "incentives" (not named) to get industry on the right track, but offered no details.

Despite its drawbacks, the report is still a significant leap forward from the somewhat coy "beautification" slogan espoused by the Johnson Administration. It is not without its innovative moments. It recommends, for example, that a single river basin be set aside for study of advanced concepts in water-quality management. The report also advocates a national policy to preserve existing energy resources and develop new ones over a long-term period.

In Japan, which is overwhelmed by environmental woes, the Nixon stand was warmly praised. Said Tokyo's Daily Yomiuri last week: "Nixon's war on pollution is probably the first time in world history that such conscious and systematic thinking has been directed at protecting the environment. Compared with the strong and decisive stand by the American government, our government emerges as weak and compromising."

-Whose fellow council members are Robert Cahn, Washington correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and Gordon J.F. Mac-Donald, a geophysicist at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

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