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White House leadership is needed in several areas. For example, the development 

 of environmentally sound industrial technologies should he a national priority. Let's 

 face it. Much of the thrust of our environmental efforts to date have been driven by 

 the need to play "catch-up, clean-up." We have been preoccupied trying to clean up, 

 after the fact, the polluting side effects of 20th-century technologies which were con- 

 ceived largely in ignorance of their singular and cumulative environmental impacts. 

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

 our industrial economy. 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 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 

 generation of technology with an eye towards the long-term health of the global 

 commons. 



The United States should lead this new industrial reformation. The global market 

 for green technologfies is already large and growing. But, the United States must 

 face the fact that it will take a set of calculated public policies if we are to stimulate 

 the private investment needed to bring about this "greening" of technology. 



There is also a manifest need to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, both for 

 environmental and national security reasons, and the new Energj' Policy Act takes 

 some important steps in the right direction, but there is much more we need to do 

 in the areas of energy taxes and full-product pricing — incorporating the full costs of 

 environmental degradation into the price tag of commercial products. Needless to 

 say, the Office of Environmental Policy will be dealing with some of the most chal- 

 lenging policy questions facing the Nation and the world. I hope the President will 

 put in place a first-rate, very experienced staff to ctirry out both the policy coordina- 

 tion and the strategic planning needs of the White House. 



However, in my view it will be difficult for a small Office of Environmental Policy 

 to generate the kind of integrated, long-range policies the Nation needs to advance 

 initiatives of this kind. 



The Need for a National Environmental Strategy 



The Department of the Environment together with the Office of Environmentiil 

 Policy and other departments and agencies should be responsible for developing a 

 National Environmental Strategy, a blueprint for moving the Nation, and indeed 

 the world, towards sustainable development emd public health objectives. This weis a 

 key recommendation of the National Commission on the Environment, and I would 

 like to submit a copy of the summary statement and key recommendations of the 

 National Commission on the Environment report. Choosing a Sustainable Future, 

 for the record. ' Such a strategy should include explicit statements of the long-range 

 smd near-term environmental goals the Nation is working to achieve, and should 

 state how progress in achieving them will be measured. The National Environmen- 

 tal Strategy should attempt to identify emerging problems and present a plan for 

 responding to them. 



In addition, I think Congress and the EPA Administrator should take a careful 

 look at the organization of the agency's Office of Research and Development and 

 consider consolidating its laboratories and developing a set of Environmental Re- 

 search Institutes in order to upgrade the quality and extend the capacity of its re- 

 search programs. Consideration should also be given to establishing a Federal inter- 

 agency Environmental Technologies Program to coordinate Federal programs and 

 ensure that mechanisms are in place to support the development and diffusion of 

 these technologies in the private sector through grsmts, contracts, and cooperative 

 agreements. These ideas are discussed in more detail in a report of the Carnegie 

 Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, Environmental R&D: 

 Strengthening the Federal Infrastructure,^ which was released last December, and I 

 would like to submit the executive summary of this report for the record as well. In 

 this study we extend the idea of a National Environmental Strategy to include an 

 Environmentid Research and Monitoring Initiative, a long-term effort to bring all 

 Federal environmental R&D programs into a common policy framework. There are 

 a variety of other recommendations in this report and the National Commission on 

 the Environment report that I hope you will have an opportunity to examine. I 

 would be happy to provide interested members and staff complete copies of both re- 

 ports. 



This spring, the Carnegie Commission will release a second report on Federal reg- 

 ulatory decision-making that will present a series of suggestions for improving the 

 way the Federal Government devises and implements policies to reduce risks to the 

 environment and public health.' I have provided your staff with a draft of this 



