July 10, 1967
Page 18141
SENATOR MUSKIE'S WARNING SHOULD BE HEEDED
Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, in an article entitled "Clearing the Air," published in the May 1 issue of Forbes magazine, the distinguished Senator from Maine [Mr. MUSKIE] is quoted as laying down a frank warning to American industry. He says in effect that the rising menace of air pollution makes comprehensive and effective control measures inevitable. Senator MUSKIE, an eminently wise and practical legislator, reminds industry that it has two alternatives. It must either take bold action on its own initiative to curb pollution or it will be faced with strong Federal legislation that may prove far less palatable.
Senator MUSKIE warns that public reaction to increasing air pollution may "generate pressures for precipitous action in many cases. Intelligent corporation executives should remove the chance of their company becoming a scapegoat when a serious incident occurs" He urges companies to "take concrete steps to abate any air pollution they can before an incident occurs -- to gain a reputation for a clean-air program in advance."
Mr. President, no one favors Federal intervention when alternative solutions are possible.
Nothing would be a greater vindication of the spirit of free enterprise than for American industry to rise to the challenge and through private initiative take the necessary measures to control the air pollution for which it is largely responsible. I urge the industrial community to heed Senator MUSKIE'S sound advice.
I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Forbes article be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
EDMUND S. MUSKIE -- CLEARING THE AIR
When Edmund S. Muskie went to Washington in 1959 as the first Democratic senator from the state of Maine, the big domestic issue then, as now, was civil rights. The Senate Majority Leader called him in and said: "How do you plan to vote on cloture?" And Muskie replied: "You'll know when I cast my vote."
The Senate Majority Leader was Lyndon B. Johnson, and nobody talked to Johnson like that. He got even with Muskie by putting him on the Public Works Committee, which in those days was the Senate's "Siberia."
Today, air pollution and water pollution are major national concerns. Johnson, as President, has asked the Congress for stiff legislation to control air pollution. And who is chairman of the Public Works subcommittee on pollution? Edmund S. Muskie.
According to some estimates, cleaning up the nation's air and water "may cost about $30 billion over the next ten years and about $120 billion over the next 33 years," and Muskie's subcommittee has to find the answers to such questions as: Who shall do what? And who will have to pay for what? The latter question, Muskie believes, is purely a technical one. The public will have to foot that $120-billion bill, whether as stockholders, consumers or taxpayers.
Muskie thinks industry would be well advised not to wait for Congress to act on the President's request for legislation to eliminate air pollution but to start moving right now.
"With air pollution, we are seeing more emotionalism than we saw with water pollution," he says, "and this emotionalism can generate pressures for precipitous action in many cases. Intelligent corporation executives should remove the chance of their company becoming a scapegoat when a serious incident occurs. There is a tendency in all of us to look for a scapegoat, you know. If a major incident happens, many people not even directly affected by it might call for a halt in the use of automobiles in an area, for a stop in the use of oil. of coal, and so forth. Therefore, companies should . . . take concrete steps to abate any air pollution they can before an incident occurs -- to gain a reputation for a clean-air program in advance."
Muskie's rise to a position of such influence in the Senate is only less surprising than the man himself. Tall and lanky, he looks like the very model of a Down-Easter. Actually he is the son of a Polish immigrant tailor. He practiced law before he went into politics in the mid-Fifties and became governor of Maine.
Taciturn as a true Down-Easter, he will not say now what kind of antipollution legislation he will propose. However, his attitude seems clear: Pollution is an important issue and a potentially popular one, and unless industry moves decisively against it, then the Government is going to -- and in a big way.