Ill 



Mr. Leary. There are two answers to that question. But, Mr. 

 Souby here keeps his job by having his pulse on the Governors in 

 the West. I would like him to address this issue. 



Mr. Souby. My name is Jim Souby. I chair the operations com- 

 mittee, which is a designee of each of the commissioners on the 

 commission. 



With respect to the regulatory issue, I share Mr. Clark's view 

 that at least for our commission, the best interests of the commis- 

 sion and the best interests of improving visibility would be best 

 served by holding off on a regulatory rulemaking process until the 

 commission has completed its activities. 



Mr. Synar. What about for the East? 



Mr. Souby. I wouldn't comment on the situation in the East. 



Mr. Synar. Does it make any sense to wait, though? Is there 

 anything you are going to give us that is going to be duplicated in 

 the East? 



Mr. Souby. My view, and I think the commission's view is that 

 we are getting into a set of issues that require a different approach. 

 A rulemaking is not going to effectively solve the problems on the 

 ground. We are dealing with very disparate sources. We are deal- 

 ing with individual behavior and a whole array of behavioral 

 changes that are going to require understanding. 



In other words, the commission process, this tedious process that 

 Ms. Shaver and others take exception to is, in fact, I think nec- 

 essary. Our public needs to understand the consequences of not 

 acting and, the problems that are affecting the national parks and 

 other class I areas. That is what the commission is all about. It is 

 to get that message out and to build acceptance for a strategy to 

 deal with that problem. 



We have an ally on the commission in our view, and that is time. 

 We do have time, quite frankly, and that allows us to expect and 

 be optimistic about solving these problems. I think if you tried to 

 impose national rules, particularly in our area where you have a 

 mandated process under way with a time line in statute, you would 

 be inciting tremendous resistance for no good reason. 



Mr. Synar. We are going to be back here in 4 years and nothing 

 will have been done. 



Mr. Souby. I think, quite frankly, we can expect EPA to take 

 this very seriously. 



Mr. Synar. We did in 1990 and now we are here in 1994. 



Mr. Souby. You have got eight Governors engaged in this issue. 

 You have got a tremendous effort under way at advising the public 

 about the issue. 



Mr. Synar. Mr. Leary, I wasn't going to say this, but I will any- 

 way. Mr. Souby, I have been waiting for eight Governors in the 

 West to figure out this grazing thing. So why would I expect 



Mr. Souby. We are working with Mr. Babbitt on that question 

 as well. 



Mr. Synar. I had to say that. 



Mr. Souby. Can I make some recommendation for Federal action, 

 though, that I think would be supportive? First of all, obviously the 

 resource question I think is very important. 



