In another attempt to improve
their green image, the Republicans
issued a new set of guidelines for
their future environmental proposals. Prepared by the 70-member
study group set up by Speaker Newt
Gingrich, the Republican from
Georgia, the 'vision statement' calls
for consensus, innovation and a
greater role for states, local communities and the private sector .
This was done after intense debates
on several bills offered by the new
house leadership since gaining
power in 1995.
It is still to be seen what actual
effect the poliCy statement will have
on the several pieces of environmental legislation before the congress, including those that have
already been passed by the House.
The Republicans in their statement
said that they would "offer common sense, flexible and effective
approaches that build on consensus, private property ownership,
free enterprise, local control, sound
scientific evidence and the latest
technology."
The statement recedes from
some of the more extreme proposals offered by Congressional
Republicans. For example, it
assures greater certainity to private
property owners when their land is
regulated but it says nothing about
compensating landowners for any
decline in the value of property
resulting from regulations. The
House has already passed proposals made for protecting wetlands
and endangered species and the
proposals await action in the
Senate. The Superfund programme
for cleaning up toxic ,vaste dumps,
the Safe Drinking Water Act, grazing and logging on public lands and
many other programmes are still
being mooted in the House. Several
other bills have already been passed
by the House but await action in
the Senate including the Clean
Water Act. Opinion polls have
found little public support for the
proposals and critics contend that
the Republicans are trying to undo
decades of environmental progress.
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