Nixon's Second Round

When President Nixon delivered his first major message on the environment to Congress last year, it contained 14 executive orders and 23 requests for legislative acts, the most comprehensive such program that a chief executive had ever proposed. Last week Nixon produced an even better blueprint, one clearly attuned to the "disturbing regularity" of assorted alarms (oil spills, mercury, smog). Whether the blueprint will become law remains to be seen.

Nixon told Congress that his big gun will be his new enforcer, the Environmental Protection Agency, for which he requested a 1972 outlay of $2.45 billion, nearly double its current budget. The agency's chief target: big industrial polluters. The President seeks power for EPA to impose fines of up to $25,000 a day on industries that pollute waterways in violation of federal-state water-quality standards. In addition, violators would be subject to court-imposed fines of up to $25,000 a day. Repeated violations would draw fines of up to $50,000 a day.

EPA would also be empowered to restrict the use or distribution of "any" substance deemed hazardous to health or the environment. It would set standards for noise abatement, enforce new ones for strip mining, establish a national policy to curb ocean pollution, and crack down on pesticides. The most dangerous chemicals would reach the public only through Government-approved pest-control consultants.

Sulfur Tax. The President also took aim at sulfur oxides, which he said are "among the most damaging air pollutants" and are "linked to increased incidence of diseases such as bronchitis and lung cancer." Nixon proposes a tax on coal-smoke emissions (main source: power plants), both to curb them and to fund research for developing cleaner fuels. It is doubtful that Congress will approve. Last year the House Ways and Means Committee squashed a similar tax on leaded gasoline, a measure that Nixon now seeks again.

Nixon's most important request involves the country's inadequate municipal waste treatment plants, which do little to control water pollution. Last year he asked Congress for a four-year, $4 billion federal aid program, then failed to support it in the House Public Works Committee, where it died. Last week he upped the ante to $12 billion over three years, with states to pay half. Senator Edmund Muskie had already proposed $25 billion over five years. Nixon again asked that federal jurisdiction be extended to ground waters (now uncovered) as well as navigable waters and their tributaries. This would prod states to develop antipollution standards as tough as those prescribed by federal authorities. With both Nixon and Muskie pushing for some water-quality measure, the chances are good that Congress may finally act.

No Teeth. To environmentalists, one big disappointment in the President's message was his proposed national land-use policy (TIME, Feb. 8). In its original form, the scheme included a strong incentive for states to produce solid land-use plans. Those without them would lose an increasing percentage of their federal funds for airports and highways each year. But the proposal sent to Congress last week had no such teeth. The incentive was stricken because the funds that would have been withheld have gone into a revenue-sharing plan for transportation, a no-strings proposition.

There were other omissions in the environmental message. While urging noise standards, Nixon said nothing about the noisy SST, presumably because he still seeks $235 million to help develop the mammoth plane. Last year Congress authorized $ 150 million for a federal recycling program; Nixon has requested only $19 million, leaving states to cope with the country's ever-mounting solid wastes.

Nixon's message nevertheless put his Administration firmly on record as the nation's chief prosecutor of polluters. Two days later, he assured a Washington meeting of 250 executives from big industries, some of them facing prosecution, that his Administration "is not here to beat industry over the head" and will not make it the "scapegoat" of public demands for cleaner air and water. Those words are not necessarily inconsistent with a thoroughly progressive environmental push. The outcome will depend in part on how hard Nixon fights in Congress for his 14 proposed bills.

House Democrats threw the President a curve last week, when the agriculture subcommittee gained jurisdiction over the funding of all federal environmental programs and agencies, including EPA. The chairman of that powerful seven-man body is Mississippi's conservative Jamie L. Whitten, a longtime defender of pesticides, who has voted against a wide variety of environmental bills. Whitten is not expected to become a convert when Nixon's bills reach his desk.

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