Bob Dole: “In their ongoing efforts to frighten the American people, the opponents of regulatory reform continue to spread their…”

“In their ongoing efforts to frighten the American people, the opponents of regulatory reform continue to spread their distortions through the media. Last night, in a report on ABC's 'World News Tonight,' President Clinton's EPA Administrator, Carol Browner, made the following outrageous statement about our regulatory reform bill. That is the one we are considering right now. If these provisions had been in place over the last 10 years, EPA would not have been able to ban lead in gasoline, and a whole generation of children would have suffered real and permanent brain damage. Now, that is a catchy sound bite, but it is flatly false, and it went unchallenged in the report. Here are the facts viewers did not get last night. When a rule on lead phaseout was being considered in 1982, EPA resisted doing a cost-benefit analysis. However, when a cost-benefit analysis was performed, it demonstrated the benefits outweighed the costs of eliminating lead from gasoline. Only then did EPA issue a rule providing for quick phaseout of lead. And in fact, as a result of that analysis, EPA issued a tougher standard than it would have previously. So getting lead out of gasoline occurred precisely because a cost-benefit analysis supported doing so. Rather than undermining our reform effort, as Ms. Browner suggests, this example actually validates it.”