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Bush to Keep Lead Emissions Rules
Decision on Clinton Policy Follows Flak on Other Environmental Issues

By Mike Allen
Wednesday, April 18, 2001

The Bush administration announced yesterday it will require thousands more manufacturers to disclose their releases of toxic lead into the environment, upholding a stricter lead-reporting regulation issued in the waning days of the Clinton presidency, despite the vehement objections of business groups.

The decision, announced by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman at the White House after a meeting with President Bush, requires manufacturing and processing plants to report the emission of lead or lead compounds if they total 100 pounds a year, a much tougher standard than the current 10,000 pounds.

The new standard will expand the reporting requirement to an estimated 3,600 more businesses, including makers of batteries, circuit boards and pipe organs.

The decision marked the second time in two days that the administration has endorsed a Clinton environmental rule over the objections of business and industry groups. On Monday, Whitman announced the administration would leave in place regulations toughening development activity on thousands of acres of wetlands, including marshes, swamps and bogs.

The announcements were part of an environmental makeover Bush has undertaken in the aftermath of a ferocious reaction by environmental groups and foreign governments to a number of his early environmental decisions. Last month, Bush blocked implementation of a tighter limit on the amount of arsenic in water, suspended new cleanup requirements for mining companies, abandoned U.S. participation in the Kyoto global warming treaty and renounced a campaign promise to restrict carbon dioxide emissions.

In announcing his decision on lead, Bush said he "will continue to support and promote efforts based on sound science to clean our air, water and land." He took the unusual step of dispatching Whitman to the White House briefing room to announce his support for the rule.

"Lead is a persistent and highly toxic substance that can cause a range of environmental and health problems," Bush said in a statement. "It has an especially harmful impact on the health of children and infants. And it is found too often in some of America's older, poorer communities."

The rule was among dozens Bush suspended shortly after he took office as part of a broad review of last-minute Clinton administration orders and regulations. Bush allowed the toxic lead regulation to go into effect yesterday as scheduled.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses immediately said that it will sue the government to try to prevent enforcement of the rule. Aaron L. Taylor, the group's policy communications manager, said the rule extends "a burdensome paperwork requirement to smaller and smaller businesses" and could wind up costing jobs.

Environmental groups said they appreciated yesterday's decision. But Jeff Wise, policy director of the National Environmental Trust, tempered his praise by noting that "the only pro-environmental decisions" the Bush administration has made are those "not to destroy existing protections."

"The most you can say is they didn't do anything harmful today," Wise said.

Dan Weiss, an environmental consultant and former political director for the Sierra Club, said Bush "is seeking to use Clinton's good deeds as his own fig leaf."

"The bar can't be much lower for Bush when he makes a big deal out of the fact that he is not going to block a Clinton administration rule to require polluters to report on the amount of lead they put into the environment," Weiss said.

With Earth Day on April 22 and the 100th day of the administration a week later, Bush aides say the White House is making a stepped-up effort to call attention to the president's environmentally friendly decisions. "We think that the American people are going to judge this president on the totality of his record," said Dan Bartlett, a White House communications strategist. "We're proud of this record and will continue to build on it."

Bartlett said "a very vocal community of organizations that did not support the president during the campaign" has characterized the environmental debate "in a way that sometimes misinforms people."

Several Democratic pollsters said Bush's previous actions on the environment had hurt him with suburban voters, who are crucial because their support swings between the parties. Mark Mellman, one of the pollsters, said Bush's environmental decisions had hurt him noticeably among independent voters, who tend to be younger. "There are very few people who want more arsenic in the water," Mellman said.

But the Gallup Organization released an analysis yesterday concluding that what it called "environmentally unfriendly policies" had not damaged Bush's approval rating, which the poll put at 59 percent. The organization said 49 percent of those polled earlier this month said he would do a good job protecting the environment, and 41 percent said he would do a poor job.

The lead rule followed by one day a decision by Bush to endorse a Clinton regulation, opposed by miners and home builders, that will increase the number of digging projects in environmentally sensitive wetlands areas that require a permit under the Clean Water Act.

Environmental groups said they feared the administration would weaken both rules with a settlement in one of the many court cases that are likely to be filed. Whitman would not rule out such a settlement, but said the administration is not endorsing the lead rule "in an effort to see how we can play both sides against the middle -- that's not the way we operate."

"There is no subliminal agenda here to undermine the rule through coming to consent with the parties in a court case in ways that will undermine the rule," she said. "Our intent is to vigorously enforce this rule. It goes into effect today."

Whitman's appearance in the White House briefing room was striking because she had aggressively promoted Bush's campaign plan to restrict carbon dioxide emissions, and was taken by surprise when he reversed course.

Asked if she has been comfortable with every environmental decision the administration has made, Whitman replied, "Yes, I have been."