Thomas Daschle: “Today I join Senators Boxer, Chafee, and others to introduce The Toxic Clean Up and Polluter Pays Renewal Act. For more…”

“Today I join Senators Boxer, Chafee, and others to introduce The Toxic Clean Up and Polluter Pays Renewal Act. For more than 20 years, the polluter pays principle has been a cornerstone of environmental policy. The Superfund toxic waste cleanup program, based on that principle, has made it possible to clean up hundreds of toxic waste dumps across the country, and has led to better management of industrial pollution and waste. The polluter pays principle is now under attack. Last year, the Bush administration announced that it would not seek reauthorization of the taxes levied on oil and chemical companies that go into the Superfund trust fund, which is used to pay for cleanup of toxic waste sites. The Superfund program established three ways to pay for the cost of cleanups: 1) the company or individual responsible for creating the site pays for its cleanup; 2) the Environmental Protection Agency performs the cleanups and recoups the costs from the responsible party or parties; and 3) for those 'orphan' sites where no responsible party can be found, or the party is insolvent or no longer in business, the cleanup is paid for out of the trust fund.”