[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SECOND GENERATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT ACT

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                        HON. JAMES C. GREENWOOD

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Mr. GREENWOOD. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing, along with my 
colleagues, Mr. Dooley, Mr. Boehlert and Ms. Tauscher, the ``Second 
Generation of Environmental Improvement Act of 1999.'' This bipartisan 
bill has two related purposes--to improve the information practices of 
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to encourage the EPA to 
experiment with more innovative approaches to protect the environment.
  Our overall goal is to move our nation toward a performance-based 
system of environmental protection--a system that will do a better job 
of protecting the environment, while providing greater flexibility to 
companies and states to determine how to meet tough, clear 
environmental standards. Our watchword in writing this bill has been to 
provide greater flexibility in return for greater accountability.
  In moving in this direction, we are following the recommendations of 
a variety of recent reports, including the Enterprise for the 
Environment, headed up by former EPA Administrator Bill Ruckelshaus; 
the President's Council on Sustainable Development, the Aspen Institute 
and the National Academy of Public Administration. We need to allow and 
encourage more experimentation to see if innovative approaches to 
regulation will produce the desired results. Our incremental bill will 
do just that.
  Mr. Speaker, we are introducing this bill today to spark discussion 
on this approach to environmental policy, which we think should be at 
the heart of moderate environmental reform. But we still have much work 
to do. The bill still needs both technical and substantive work, and we 
do not intend to move it forward in its current form. Rather, we plan 
to introduce a refined version early in the next session after more 
meetings with experts on all sides of the environmental debate. But we 
think the bill in its current form does indicate the basic shape and 
principles of the bill that we will move forward.
  This bill should be of interest to anyone who wants to ensure that we 
will continue to work to make our environmental protection system as 
effective and efficient as possible. We encourage anyone interested to 
comment on this version of the bill, so that we can take those concerns 
into consideration as we work on the version we will introduce next 
session.

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