>From qestion and answer session following speech in Durham, NH. 
February 3, 1996

Question:
[inaudible]

 Answer:
 She asked about the environment. This concerns the policy on the
environment. I think that one of the things that we should be very
proud of in the last twenty-five years, is that we have made real
progress in America in terms of air and water quality. It doesn't
mean that we rest on oars
 [applause], but we have made we have made some real progress and
there are some basic principles that I think should apply to
environmentalism, one is that we do have to curb bureaucratic
excesses, that is why there is be some kind of back lash. For
example we saw it on wetlands, there is no reason why, if you get
a rain storm, your front lawn should qualify as a wetland. But
unfortunately too often that can happen, there are have been
real abuses. Second there should be a respect for science, not fall
into a motion no more alar on the apples that we had a few years
ago, where an industry was nearly destroyed based on bogus science.
So lets stick to the facts. Third, there is no harm in trying to
have cost benefit analysis to make sure that we are getting
something for those dollars that we spend in terms in improving our
quality of life. 
 A favorite story of mine, several years ago in Columbus, Ohio, one
of the papers ran a story, they wanted to put in a parking lot, the
way the regs were written they had to dig up all of the dirt in the
parking lot, for the proposed parking lot, ship it to be burned and
cleansed, brought back again, put it in the hole and then the tar
put back, put on top of it.  Kind of a waste of resources, and for
what, that should be avoided. Also too we should get the job done,
where we need to get the job done. I.E. Super Fund, right now, much
of that money if not the majority are going to lawyers and court
room fees. If you have a haz hazard clean the darn thing up, don't
let the lawyers, I know that there are some lawyers here but you
can get rich other ways 
 [laughter]. 
 No no need no need to suck off of Super Fund, lets get the job
done and finally allow for a little bit of innovation and
imagination. There's no need for ten thousand page blue prints,
instruction manuals from Washington. Set a goal and let the
American people figure out the most innovative, imaginative way to
do it. And then I think we will continue to make progress in
improving the quality of life in our country.