20 



The answer is now, at the beginning of this Nation's third decade 

 of Federal environmental protection, a decade in which we must 

 move from command and control, media-specific regulation to al- 

 ternative approaches, including pollution prevention, ecosystem 

 protection, and incentive-based policies. It is time for a department 

 on the environment to function as a permanent and equal partner 

 in the President's Cabinet, integral to any equation of Federal deci- 

 sion-making. 



We have the opportunity now to establish an environmental in- 

 frastructure ready to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Pre- 

 venting pollution by elimination or reduction of waste at the 

 source is key to this Administration's commitment to providing a 

 healthy economy that meets our needs today while preserving the 

 environment for our children and future generations. 



A Cabinet department on the environment will be well-posi- 

 tioned to accelerate efforts to integrate pollution prevention and 

 multi-media decision-making into regulatory and compliance pro- 

 grams Government-wide, to promote the use of incentive-based 

 policies, to improve technical assistance to small businesses, and to 

 encourage corporate commitment to clean manufacturing processes 

 and green products. A Cabinet that includes an environment de- 

 partment will ensure that the environment is fully engaged and in- 

 tegrated into this country's examination of and decisions on all na- 

 tional issues. 



Likewise, EPA's international environmental programs provide 

 cooperation with and technical expertise to developing and newly 

 democratic countries and our industrial partners. Cabinet status 

 will be important in making the head of EPA a peer with Cabinet 

 colleagues in foreign environment ministries and promoting inter- 

 national cooperation on the environment. 



In the past 20 years, this country has created most of our exist- 

 ing environmental infrastructure and body of law. To be sure, the 

 National debate among Federal, State, local, and tribal govern- 

 ments, industry, and the public on environmental matters has not 

 always been successful. Nevertheless, significant progress has been 

 achieved. The air, water, and land are demonstrably cleaner as a 

 result of our joint efforts. Yet the problems grow. 



In 1993, concern for the environment affects individual, corpo- 

 rate, and governmental behavior. The environmental ethic has 

 evolved and is taken seriously across economic, cultural, geograph- 

 ic, and governmental sectors. Just as civil rights issues gripped our 

 Nation in the 1960's, and nuclear and cold war concerns dominated 

 the 1970's and 1980's, integration of economic and environmental 

 policy has seized the public's attention in the 1990's. 



We now understand that we live in an enormously complex 

 global ecosystem: solving one environmental problem can create a 

 new one. Clean-up of surface water has contaminated groundwater 

 and solutions to ground pollution have polluted the air. Actions 

 taken by one country can affect the health of the citizens of an- 

 other, thousands of miles away and for generations to come. We 

 also know that £issessment of environmental achievement is a rela- 

 tive measure. Our successes are meaningful only in terms of reduc- 

 ing overall risk. 



