[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[April 18, 1991]
[Pages 404-406]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 404]]


Message to the Congress Reporting on Environmental Quality
April 18, 1991

To the Congress of the United States:
    Of all the great social and technological changes of the 20th 
century, none may be more crucial to our well-being and that of future 
generations than the change that has occurred in the way we view our 
environment. Ours was the first generation to see the many colors of 
Earth from the vastness of space, and to recognize that our decisions 
will determine whether the next generation lives in a polluted world of 
lowered expectations or in a world that sustains humanity and a wondrous 
diversity of life.
    Given these high stakes, I am pleased to report that 1990 was a 
landmark year in the Nation's efforts to enhance environmental quality.
    We enacted the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, providing 
            the United States with the world's most advanced, 
            comprehensive, and market-oriented laws to address air 
            pollution, including acid precipitation, urban air quality, 
            toxic air pollutants, and global ozone layer depletion.
    We adopted an international agreement and enacted laws to 
            phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other substances 
            that deplete the Earth's ozone layer, which protects us from 
            the harmful effects of solar radiation.
    We enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and adopted a major 
            international agreement to strengthen laws related to oil 
            pollution prevention, liability, and response.
    We enacted the most environmentally progressive farm bill 
            ever. It will help farmers protect water quality and 
            wildlife habitat and it launches a part of our America the 
            Beautiful initiative to begin a long-term national tree 
            planting and improvement campaign aimed at both rural and 
            urban areas.
    In partnership with the Nation's Governors, we developed 
            ambitious national educational goals, while the Congress and 
            the executive branch strengthened environmental education 
            programs. These actions are an essential part of our efforts 
            to revitalize American education and to improve the 
            environment.
    We made other commitments to environmental stewardship, 
            including the expansion of national parks, wildlife refuges, 
            marine sanctuaries, and recreation areas; accelerated 
            cleanup of Federal facilities; enhanced protection of marine 
            mammals, the African elephant, the Florida panther, and 
            other threatened species; and the suspension for up to 10 
            years of oil and gas leasing in many areas off our 
            coastlines pending further environmental and resource 
            analysis.
    The complete record is told in this report. I am proud that our 
Administration played a catalytic and constructive role in securing 
these achievements. Progress has come from working cooperatively with 
the Congress, State and local governments, environmental and 
conservation groups, corporations, educators, and scores of individuals, 
as well as other nations and international institutions.
    Our achievements in 1990 add to a growing national record of 
environmental action that has improved the quality of American life. 
Compared to the conditions facing Americans earlier in my lifetime, our 
skies are clearer, our lakes and streams are cleaner, and our major 
technologies are less wasteful.
    Our work, however, is incomplete. Americans are sobered by the scope 
of the stewardship challenge and recognize that it requires ongoing 
vigilance and action. We know, for example, that increased trade and 
economic development is needed to reduce poverty and improve the quality 
of life for all of the world's people. However, if we fail to make wise 
economic and environmental choices, those needed increases in economic 
activity are likely to result in new burdens on the Earth's ability to 
sustain life. Our challenge is both to provide greater opportunities for 
an expanding population

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and to protect the environment upon which we depend.
    Several forces work in our favor. Our economy is fundamentally 
sound, which allows us to make environmental investments and serve as a 
model for others. Our technology is first-rate, as is our research 
establishment. Our citizens are eager to make a personal contribution.
    In the days ahead, therefore, we must summon the full measure of our 
powers to achieve environmental results. In that effort we should be 
guided by what science tells us about the most serious threats to our 
health and environment, and also by our knowledge of what works and what 
does not.
    In particular, we must learn to harness wherever possible the power 
of the marketplace in service to the environment. The goal of a healthy 
environment may not be provided by markets acting alone. However, 
government regulations are blunt tools that impose unforeseen human 
costs. Therefore, we need to consider all costs and benefits of 
government programs as they are developed and expand the use of market 
incentives that deliver results at the lowest possible cost to society. 
As a corollary, we need to strengthen the base of scientific and 
economic understanding that supports such decisions.
    Our environmental efforts should also be guided by a holistic view. 
The environment is composed of a seamless web of relationships between 
living organisms and the air, water, and land that surround them. 
Accordingly, rather than continue to address environmental issues in 
isolation from each other or from other social goals, we must expand our 
efforts to understand and protect the functional integrity of the 
environment--and our place in it.
    We can also apply American ingenuity to the challenge of preventing 
pollution. There is no reason to think of pollution as an inevitable 
problem that occurs at the end of a pipe. Quite the contrary: as 
pollution becomes more costly, and because we recognize the environment 
is an enclosed sphere, we are finding that pollution prevention can be 
less costly and better for the environment.
    Our efforts to enhance the quality of the domestic environment must 
be accompanied by comparable efforts toward global environmental 
quality. In these times, Americans are aware that our political and 
economic security is affected by actions occurring abroad. Likewise, we 
know that environmental threats do not stop at a line on a map. In the 
months and years ahead, we need to broaden our dialogue with other 
nations and international institutions and together address 
environmental issues that know no boundaries.
    At home, two further principles will guide our environmental 
policies. First, we will continue to harness the enthusiasm and 
expertise of citizen volunteers. Partnerships between the public and 
private sectors have always been a key to our success, and their value 
in environmental affairs is growing. Second, we will continue to enforce 
environmental laws firmly and fairly. Our record and our message in this 
regard are absolutely clear: polluters must pay.
    Taken together, these principles--and the new programs and 
initiatives that are putting them into action--represent a turning point 
in American environmental affairs. No longer should we as a nation focus 
on isolated fragments of what is in fact a complex, interconnected set 
of problems. Nor should we accept rigid, shortsighted measures that 
stymie innovation, shift pollution from one location to another, or 
impose unnecessary costs. In the future, our national environmental 
strategy must be comprehensive, long-range, efficient, and adaptable to 
changing information about risks and benefits.
    In the coming months, our Administration will pursue a number of new 
initiatives to advance these principles. For example, in December 1990 I 
established by Executive order the President's Commission on 
Environmental Quality. This Commission will soon be at work building 
public-private partnerships to help achieve concrete results in the 
areas of pollution prevention, conservation, education, and 
international cooperation. A program of Presidential awards for 
achievement in conservation and environmental affairs will stimulate 
voluntary activity and recognize the outstanding efforts of individuals 
and organizations.

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Each of these projects is intended to underscore my belief that 
environmental stewardship must flow from action by all Americans, not 
just from government action.
    In the legislative arena, our Administration will work with the 
102nd Congress toward enactment of amendments to the Clean Water Act and 
other laws, seeking opportunities to incorporate innovative, market-
oriented provisions. We will also seek to make progress toward the goal 
of no-net-loss of wetlands and to strengthen programs to revitalize the 
Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, and other productive ecosystems. And we 
will work for a National Energy Strategy that provides a balance among 
the goals of increased energy efficiency, increased use of alternative 
fuels, and environmentally responsible development of all U.S. energy 
resources.
    I have proposed that the Congress give the environment a permanent 
place at the Cabinet table by creating a Department of the Environment. 
Given the importance of environmental matters, both domestically and 
internationally, the Environmental Protection Agency is already accorded 
equal status with other major Federal departments in my Administration. 
However, I feel this policy should be established in law for the future. 
The Congress should reject extraneous provisions that would delay 
consideration of this proposal.
    Looking abroad, the United States will continue to seek to conclude 
an international convention on global climate change in time for its 
signing at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and 
Development in Brazil. In our view, such a convention must be 
comprehensive in scope, addressing all sources and sinks of greenhouse 
gases, adaptation as well as mitigation measures, and continued 
scientific and economic research and policy responses. The United States 
is committed to a series of domestic actions that have many benefits 
such as curbing air pollution, conserving energy, and restoring forest 
lands and that also help to curb greenhouse gas levels. These actions--
recently established in law or proposed by my Administration--will hold 
U.S. net emissions of greenhouse gases at or below the 1987 level 
through the foreseeable future. An effective response to potential 
climate change also requires that all nations participate and meet 
obligations that are appropriate to their circumstances.
    I have also proposed that a worldwide convention on forests be 
developed and ready for signing by world leaders at the U.N. conference 
in 1992. Forests provide diverse benefits, helping to clean our air and 
water, foster biological diversity, and sequester greenhouse gases. We 
should take steps now to protect and enhance them. In the coming year, I 
also hope we can move forward on U.S. proposals for integrated economic 
and environmental assistance in such regions as Latin America and the 
Caribbean, Eastern and Central Europe, and the Middle East.
    The worldwide market potentially available for U.S. exports of 
environmental goods and services approaches $60 billion annually, and it 
is growing. I have directed the Department of Commerce to assess that 
market, and I look forward to the creation of a partnership between 
business and government to develop the opportunities for environmental 
technology exports. This effort will help to create new jobs while 
enhancing the quality of life here at home and around the globe.
    The causes and effects of environmental problems are diverse and 
complex. We should be humbled by the fact that the more we learn, the 
more questions arise. But unlike the situation a generation ago, we know 
today that ecological degradation can be halted and, indeed, reversed 
through rigorous analysis, constructive dialogue, and hard work. Let us 
work together in this generation to achieve a more productive harmony 
between humanity and the environment.

                                                             George Bush

The White House,
April 18, 1991.