    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [December 21, 1999]
    [Pages 2324-2326]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Emissions Standards for Cars and Sport Utility Vehicles
    December 21, 1999

        Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to thank the
    principal of this school, Dale Talbert, for
    welcoming all of us here. And all the members of the Maury school
    community, thank you, and thank you for the nice sign there. And I want
    to thank the kids back here for being with me and with you today.
        I want to thank Gloria Hackman for the
    fine statement that she made and for 20 years of dedication as a nurse.
    As a son and the grandson of a nurse, I liked hearing her speak. And I
    also want to say a special word of appreciation for the work being done
    here.
        I want to thank Ed Zechman, the
    CEO of the Children's National Medical Center, for the wonderful work he
    does every day and, in particular, the last 7 years, the work that he
    and the First Lady have done
    together. And most of all, I want to thank Carol Browner, the EPA Assistant Administrator, Bob
    Perciasepe, and all the other people at
    EPA who worked so hard to make this day come about.
        If you knew how many times over the last 7 years, in how many
    different contexts, Carol Browner had said to me, ``You have got to do
    something to reduce incidents of asthma and other respiratory diseases
    among young children. We've got to keep doing it. It's the biggest
    problem out there most kids face.'' If you had any idea how many private
    encounters we had had on that that led to this happy day, you would be
    very grateful that someone like her is in
    public service in the United States; I'll tell you.
        Vice President Gore has given me a lot
    of good ideas, as he always reminds me when we're together--[laughter]--
    but the recommendation to appoint her is
    surely one of the best.
        Let me say another word about Gloria Hackman. She was here speaking not only for herself and out of
    her own experience but in a way for all the children and families of
    this school

    [[Page 2325]]

    and schools like it all across America and, particularly, on behalf of
    the children and families who struggle each day with the challenges of
    asthma. I want to commend everyone here who is working in the American
    Lung Association's Open Airways program for all that you do to help our
    children breathe a little easier. As these children know only too well,
    a simple breath of fresh air is not something you can take for granted.
        You know, back at the beginning of our century, a little air
    pollution was considered a small price to pay for the bright economic
    future the industrial revolution was bringing us. In countless
    communities, in fact, black smoke billowing from the factory smokestack
    was a welcome symbol of newfound prosperity. It went on a long time. I
    remember when I first entered politics in Arkansas, there was a
    papermill you could smell 80 miles away. And people didn't like it 80
    miles away, but where it was really strong in the community they'd say
    it was the smell of money. And that's what people believed.
        But after a while, the air became so fouled in places like
    Pittsburgh that the streetlights had to be kept on during the day so
    people could see. Businessmen traveling to New York knew to bring along
    a second white shirt, even if they were staying just a day, because by
    the afternoon the first one would be coated with soot. Americans soon
    came to realize that dirty air was not just a nuisance, that it
    threatened their health and their lives.
        In the decade since that realization came to pass, through the
    actions of Government and the ingenuity of American industry, we have
    made tremendous strides. In the last 30 years, we have reduced air
    pollution in the United States by nearly a third, even as our economic
    output has more than doubled. Over the past 6 years alone, 43 million
    more Americans breathe air that meets Federal standards. Every day,
    thanks to these efforts, we are preventing as a society 600 premature
    deaths and 2,000 cases of asthma and bronchitis--every single day. And I
    want to say--I'm going to say this 15 times before I sit down--if you
    have noticed, it hasn't done any harm to the economy. I am very grateful
    for the opportunity that Vice President Gore and I have had to work with
    Americans in industry and environmental groups to make our air even
    cleaner, from taking actions to reduce powerplant emissions and clean
    the air over our national parks to setting the toughest standards ever
    for soot and smog.
        Again, I say, as with all of our other efforts in the environment
    over the last three decades, America has proven wrong the skeptics who
    claim that the cost of fighting pollution would be ruinous. In fact,
    listen to this, since 1970 the direct benefits of the Clean Air Act--
    lower health costs and fewer days work lost, for example--have
    outweighed the cost of the Clean Air Act by more than $1 trillion.
        Still, even as our city skylines emerge from the haze and even as
    millions of Americans are spared from debilitating disease, these hard-
    won gains could soon be put at risk. Why? A big part of the reason is
    that we Americans love to drive, and we are driving more than ever. A
    new car rolling off the assembly line today is 95 percent less polluting
    than the typical new car was back in 1970. But there are more than twice
    as many cars on the road today, and the number of miles driven each year
    has grown even faster.
        What's more, fully half the new vehicles sold today are sport
    utility vehicles, minivans, and pickups, which produce 3 to 5 times as
    much pollution as the average passenger car. Driving now accounts for 30
    percent of the total air pollution in America. And unless we take
    additional measures, air quality in many parts of our country will
    continue to worsen in the coming decades.
        That is why today I am honored to announce the boldest steps in a
    generation to clean the air we breathe by improving the cars we drive.
    Working closely with industry, we will ensure both the freedom of
    American families to drive the vehicles of their choice and the right of
    American children to breathe clean, healthy air.
        First, we're setting tough new standards that, over the coming
    decade, will reduce tailpipe emissions as much as 95 percent. Second,
    for the first time, we are applying the same stringent standard to cars
    and to sport utility vehicles, including the largest models. And third,
    because cleaner fuels also are critical to achieving cleaner air, we're
    cutting the sulfur content of gasoline by up to 90 percent.
        These measures will assure every American cleaner air well into the
    21st century. It will prevent thousands of premature deaths and protect
    millions of our children from respiratory disease. It will be the most
    dramatic improvement in air quality since the catalytic converter

    [[Page 2326]]

    was first introduced a quarter century ago. And manufacturers will be
    able to meet these new standards while still offering the kinds of
    models popular with consumers today.
        I want to say a special word of appreciation for all those that
    worked with EPA in developing this new strategy. I thank the auto and
    the oil industries, the States, the environmental communities, the
    leading public health experts. The issues were not always easy, to put
    it mildly. But working together we have, I am convinced, come to
    solutions that are best for our Nation's health and for our Nation's
    economy. We will continue to work together also--and this is very
    important--to create cleaner diesel fuel, our next big challenge in this
    area. And I will do all I can to expand our efforts with the auto
    industry, which have already borne a lot of fruit, in the same spirit of
    collaboration to provide our consumers with vehicles that are not just
    less polluting but also far more fuel efficient. [Applause] Yes, you can
    clap for that. It won't be long until you'll be amazed what will be
    available on the market on that score.
        It seems impossible to believe, but in just 10 days, we will close
    out a century of remarkable progress on a high note, and we will begin a
    new millennium. We will have new opportunities and new challenges. We,
    all of us, I think, wonder what the future holds for our children. As we
    unravel the mysteries of the human gene and search the outer reaches of
    black holes in the universe, there's no telling what's just around the
    turn in the new century. We are very fortunate that we end the century
    and begin the millennium with, really, an unprecedented level of
    economic prosperity and social progress and national self-confidence,
    with the absence of overwhelming internal crisis or external threat.
    This combination of conditions has not existed before, at least in my
    lifetime.
        But I would argue to all of you that because of the good times, we
    have a peculiar responsibility to think about the big long-term issues
    that will frame the lives that we dream for our children. And we have an
    opportunity to shape the future in a way that perhaps no generation
    before us has ever had. One of the things that we ought to do first is
    to make sure as many children as possible have a full future.
        You know, any of us who have ever been in a hospital delivery room
    know that when a baby comes into the world, the first thing that's done
    is to make sure the infant can draw its first breath. As we embark on a
    new millennium, among all of our other responsibilities, surely it is
    our sacred obligation to ensure that each and every child, from the
    first breath on, will be drawing the cleanest, purest, healthiest air we
    can provide. Today's a big step in the right direction, and I thank all
    of you who have been involved in it.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:10 p.m. in the multipurpose room at
    Maury Elementary School. In his remarks, he referred to Maury Elementary
    School nurse Gloria Hackman.