Jerry Brown: “on February 28, in the waning minutes of the debate on the Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Act, H.R. 1022, the House…”

“on February 28, in the waning minutes of the debate on the Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Act, H.R. 1022, the House added 17 short lines that potentially do a lot of damage. In adopting the Walker amendment, we have classified virtually every proposed or final environmental cleanup plan for a facility as a major rule subject to all the exacting provisions of the act. This is yet another instance where, in our rush to pass legislation that improves the regulatory process, we have unnecessarily created a bigger mess than we started with. Earlier in the debate we dramatically shrunk agency emergency exemption powers to get out from under this burden. Under the Walker amendment, we have dramatically reduced the dollar limit. The combination of these two provisions will end environmental enforcement as we know it to the detriment of anyone who lives near a site which could benefit from a federally aided cleanup. It also will be the last straw for many who would consider rehabbing industrial and Government sites to provide badly needed jobs. Not all of the ramifications of this provision are known, but this we do know: First, it is going to cost a great deal more time and money to clean up a brownfield site and make it economically useful.”