44 



clean-up, or to put it another way, we have been preoccupied with 

 trying to clean up after the fact the polluting side effects of 20th 

 century technologies which were conceived largely in ignorance of 

 their singular or cumulative environmental impacts. 



Today, as we approach the 21st century, we are on the verge of 

 what I believe will be major changes in our industrial economy. In 

 fact, I suspect we are in for a very difficult transition in this coun- 

 try. But, indeed, we have no choice but to reform if we are to main- 

 tain our stature as a principal player in a very competitive global 

 economy. 



It would be, in my judgment, a tragedy of enormous proportions 

 if we fail to heed the lessons of this century as we approach the 

 economic opportunities of the next, if we fail to shape the next gen- 

 eration of technology with an eye towards the long-term health of 

 the global commons. 



The United States should lead in this new industrial reforma- 

 tion. The global market for green technologies is already large and 

 growing, but the United States must face the fact that it will take 

 a set of calculated public policies applied over a sustained period of 

 time if we are, in fact, going to stimulate the private investment 

 needed to bring about this greening of technologies. 



There is also a manifest need to reduce our consumption of fossil 

 fuels, both for environmental and national security reasons, and 

 the new Energy Policy Act takes some important steps in the right 

 direction. But there will be much more needed to be done in the 

 area of energy taxes, full product pricing, incorporating the full 

 costs of environmental degradation into the price tag of commer- 

 cial products. 



I speak to these issues, Mr. Chairman, simply to underscore the 

 fact that the environmental mission of the National Government 

 today is quite significantly different from what it was in 1970, 

 when we created EPA. It is now important that we begin to devel- 

 op a national environmental strategy that recognizes these sets of 

 changed circumstances. 



With your permission, I would like to submit for the record a 

 report that was prepared this last year that I alluded to earlier by 

 the National Commission on the Environment. That report is 

 titled, "Choosing A Sustainable Future." 



With your permission, I would submit that for the record.^ 



Such a strategy should include explicit statements of the long- 

 range and near-term environmental goals that the Nation is work- 

 ing to achieve and should state how progress in achieving them 

 will be measured. A national environmental strategy should at- 

 tempt to identify emerging problems and present a plan for re- 

 sponding to them over a sustained period of time. 



I think also that the Congress and the EPA should take a careful 

 look now at how we have organized the agency's Office of Research 

 and Development and consider consolidating its laboratories and 

 developing a set of environmental research institutes in order to 

 upgrade the quality and extend the capability of EPA's research 



' This report is retained in the committee files. 



