[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 19, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1113-H1114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             APPLYING NEW THINKING TO THE CLEAN AIR DEBATE

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, the clean air debate cannot be reduced to 
a simple cost-benefit analysis that ignores the effect of pollution on 
human health and separates the economic from the human.
  We should not face the 21st century locked into the old paradigm that 
gives us the false choice between jobs and clean air. Being 
proenvironment should not mean one is antibusiness. It is time for new 
thinking on the issue of pollution, thinking that promotes both 
economic growth and human health and supports environmental regulations 
that encourage efficiency and nonpollution.
  Nineteenth century thinking focused on pollution control, at the end 
of the tailpipe or at the end of the chimney. Such an approach requires 
a great deal of energy and money and is generally insufficient to 
protect the environment. New thinking looks at pollution prevention, 
inventing ways to stop pollution from being created. New thinking views 
pollution as resources that are distributed in the wrong place. Wasted 
resources mean lost profits. Environmental protection can be equated 
with fiscal conservatism.
  Application of more enlightened environmental management processes 
can increase profits. Such an approach will require that government and 
industry leaders work together to further the development of new 
communities;

[[Page H1114]]

new technologies in energy; efficient industrial protection and 
transportation; new industries; and the unfolding of a new economic 
order based on profit and human progress.

                          ____________________