October 1, 1976
Page 34400
Mr. MUSKIE. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. MOSS. I will yield for a question, yes.
Mr. MUSKIE. I am sorry the Senator from West Virginia has left. I simply wanted to indicate for the RECORD my great appreciation to him and the leadership he has given the Public Works Committee over the years that we have worked on this legislation. He has a crew to work with which is not always manageable. All of them are strongly motivated individuals. Yet he consistently keeps our feet to the fire on the importance of moving legislation along, resolving our differences and reaching balance in judgments. I just think he is an extraordinary chairman and legislator.
I wanted to say that in response to what I think were remarks typical of his attitude and his approach to his responsibilities as committee chairman and his responsibilities as a Senator.
I hope he will have occasion to read what I have said.
Mr. MOSS. I admire the Senator for his comments about the chairman. I am sure those comments will be pointed out to him in the RECORD. I subscribe to those comments.
I spent some 8 years under his chairmanship on the Public Works Committee. I can indeed verify the fact that the chairman is a very tolerant and accommodating man and, at the same time, he is one who insists on continued movement. He does the job of leading that committee with great skill and with great humanness and friendliness. I pay that compliment to him.
I believe it is a trait that we ought to exercise when we have to work in a multi-population body, each of us coming from different constituencies and backgrounds, with different pressures on us.
As is sometimes said, each of us is a prima donna in our own right because we feel so strongly about points that we tend to press them hard. One of the great factors of this body, or any successful legislative body, is to finally find the area of accommodation where we cannot just be locked in stalemate but can continue to move along. That is what I am trying to do.
I would like to emphasize that even though I do not think we are ready to move at this time on this matter, I do not want to be counted as one of those who say we can do no more in this field. As a matter of fact, I feel there is some degree of urgency in resolving certain parts of the act that are now in effect that ought to be reexamined.
As the Senate will remember, I pleaded on this floor for about 3 days for the Moss amendment. It was simply to give 1 year of added time to come up with adequate information to know what we were doing with the nondegradation parts of the act and the stationary emissions requirement.
I brought some charts and talked about them. They were to show that there were areas where we did not know what was going to be happening. There were other areas which we thought were quite clear in indicating that there should be a cessation of all manufacturing and any emissions of any sort.
We all know if there is to be a plant of any kind, there certainly must be some emission. The question is how much must that be limited and where is the tradeoff point where we can have none at all or have some economically profitable venture, still not damaging the environment or health.
I started to talk about the bill. This document is called the working draft of the Clean Air Act amendments. It is the outcome of the conference which was held between the Senate and the House, and which the Senator from West Virginia and the Senator from Maine have described at great length as being a very lengthy and technical conference in many ways, which finally came to a conclusion with this document before us.
I have not read it all, and I do not suppose I will read it all in the next 2 or 3 days, if we are still talking here for 2 or 3 days. It is long and it is difficult to understand. It has some changes that are interlined in it. There are others which have been typed into it. The results are that many of the things about this we do not even yet understand.
If in speaking about the bill I refer to certain sections where there may have been some changes, it is because I have not yet had time to look at this report. Although I believe, as the Senator from West Virginia was pleading, that we ought to move along, I do not think we ought to move along until we know on what we are moving. I do not think we should press forward to the edge of the cliff and find that we have stepped over the edge because we did not take the time to make proper observations and get proper intelligence about our course.
I have some reason to agree with the Senator from Alaska, who has been reputed to say that what we should have done is simply take the auto emission standards and extend them, and put the whole matter over for this extended consideration and study that I have been talking about. By "extended" I was talking about 1 year. That is not a long time to study the impact on all of the areas of this country that standards of this sort would have. Nevertheless, if we had an intensive study for 1 year by appropriate scientific observation, we would know a lot more where we are going.
Another thing that I think I should comment on: Some may wonder why the two Senators from Utah seem to be so particularly interested in this matter. As one of those Senators, I would say that my judgment is that we are particularly interested in it because we have already had impact of a sort, that came out of the Kaiparowits situation.
The other is that we have vast amounts of low sulfur coal, most desirable for use in producing energy, and we are so located that transportation of energy by transmission line can readily be made to the west coast and to other areas where there is demand for energy, and in so doing there can be a relief of the burden on liquid petroleum.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may be permitted to yield to the Senator from Montana to bring up a conference report without losing my right to the floor, and without there being any construction that a second speech has begun when he has completed his presentation.
Mr. TOWER. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, for what purpose is the Senator yielding to the Senator from Montana?
Mr. METCALF. The conference report is on the Bureau of Land Management Organic Act, which was agreed to and adopted after long days of hearings. TheBureau of Land Management Organic Act is the first time we have had an organic act for the Bureau of Land Management, and this conference report probably is the most significant conference report that we have.
I see my friend the Senator from Arizona (Mr. FANNIN) on the floor, who is very familiar with this matter. This is probably the most significant report and the most significant legislation for operation of public lands that we have had in this Congress.
Mr. TOWER. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator yield for that purpose? The Senator from Utah has the floor.
Mr. TOWER. Mr. President, if the Senator from Montana will withhold his unanimous consent request for just a moment while we put on a delaying quorum call—
Mr. METCALF. I will certainly withhold any request that delays anything. I had hoped that this conference report, which was agreed to by everybody on both sides—
Mr. TOWER. I am trying to accommodate the Senator from Montana, but I do have to check on my side of the aisle.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I may be able to resolve this debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does theSenator from Utah yield to the Senator from Maine?
Mr. MUSKIE. I reserve the right to object.
Mr. MOSS. I will yield on the same terms that I did before, that I not lose my right to the floor and the resumption of my remarks not be construed as a second speech.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I shall object, not because I have any objection to the conference report, but because I indicated yesterday that in order to press the Clean Air Act until we have a right to vote on it, I am going to hold up any other business it is within my power to hold up, and I have already refused to give way to other pieces of legislation. I feel that if I make any exceptions I will be overwhelmed by these requests.
Mr. METCALF. I withdraw my request. I will renew it before the end of this Congress, and I hope we can pass this conference report sometime down the line.
Mr. MUSKIE. I thank the Senator from Montana.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Mr. President, will the Senator from Utah yield me half a minute?
Mr. MOSS. Without losing my right to the floor.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Following along this colloquy, I would like to add this: Yesterday we had so much of Senators popping up with conference reports without checking with the leadership in advance, I served notice on the floor that we would object, in addition to the Senator from Maine's concern, to any conference report automatically unless we have 15 minutes' notice in advance. I think that was a good principle, which the acting majority concurred in, and I renew it today. If anyone wishes to bring up a conference report, expect it to be objected to unless we have 15 minutes' notice in advance.
Mr. MOSS. I thank the acting minority leader, and I will be cognizant of that stricture.