Reconstructing the regulatory framework.

• Author: Georges, John A.
• Position: Environmental regulation - Meeting the Environmental Challenge

Cooperative agreements and relevant regulations based on sound science could be the cornerstone of unified environmental and economic responsibility.

Improving environmental performance is on the "A" list of every right-thinking industrial executive. This growing list of essential concerns also includes employee safety, productivity, quality and, yes, profits. Each of these vital undertakings competes for the same limited pool of capital and intellectual resources. If American business is to improve its global competitiveness, we must deftly balance all of these essentials.

It is my firm conviction that America's business leaders today are committed to doing the right thing when it comes to the environment. The unfortunate reality is that we cannot do everything at once. Clearly, our society must properly define its environmental priorities. At the same time, American business must fully merged environmental and economic responsibilities.

As a nation, we must consider a new framework for addressing environmental issues. There is a need to focus the standard "command and control" environmental regulations on the problems of proven significance -- significance defined by sound science and intelligent risk assessment.

A new approach is needed in the absence of clear threat. Voluntary actions and flexible regulations can offer a hedge against the possibility that continuing scientific research will reveal a need for stricter measures. Cooperative agreements that bypass the familiar "thou shall" or "thou shall not" aspect of environmetal regulation could be the corner-stone of unified environmental and economic responsibility.

Recent events in the regulatory arena provide some reason for hope. Spurred by the Bush administration's recent deregulatory emphasis, the Environmental Protection Agency has now proposed for comment several approaches for narrowing the scope of hazardous waste rules which have burdened industry with unnecessary costs. The proposal would allow waste that poses little or no risk to public health and the environment to be exempt from the extremely stringent recordkeeping and disposal requirements of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Under the current system, any wast is considered hazardous if mixed with or derived from a substance that no matter how minute the quantity, is officially classified as hazardous.

One approach would maintain the current identification system while permitting exemptions...