WATCHING GOVERNMENT NO ENVIRONMENTAL ROLLBACK SEEN

Anyone expecting a Republican controlled Congress to significantly roll back U.S. environmental laws can forget that notion.

John Chafee (R-R.I.), new chairman of the Senate environment and public works committee, made it clear he will defend environmental laws as staunchly as his Democratic predecessors did.

Chafee, speaking at a conference sponsored by the Ropes & Gray law firm of Providence, R.I., Boston, and Washington, D.C., rebuffed two planks in the Republican "Contract with America" that involve environmental laws.

One would require cost/benefit or risk assessment analyses of federal regulations, while the other would require government to pay businesses or individuals when regulations reduce property values.

Business groups are lobbying hard for both changes, and both appear to have a good chance of congressional passage.

COST/BENEFIT

Chafee observed that agencies have performed cost/benefit analyses on major rulemakings for years.

He said calculating the costs of a rule is relatively straightforward, but many of the real benefits are hard to quantify. In the end, an agency will have to make a political decision to determine "whose value system we use to decide the value of the benefits."

The value issue is driven largely by landowners' complaints that the Clean Water Act's wetlands preservation provisions are denying them use of their property.

Chafee pointed out that courts have long held that the government must provide compensation only when the owner is losing nearly all of the value of the property, but some bills propose compensation for any such takings covering more than 10%.

Chafee said such laws would cripple environmental rules. "Usually we think we are infringing on private property rights with environmental regulations. Not at all. Environmental laws are to protect private property rights ... from the adverse effects of somebody else's pollution."

However, Chafee said Congress should explore whether it has an obligation to make the rules fairer to property owners.

FEW CHANGES

The senator spent some time defending the accomplishments of the nation's clean air and water laws and made it clear few changes will be entertained.

He said the Senate environment committee will act quickly to reauthorize the Safe Drinking Water Act and some minor bills, but major reauthorizations of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund), the Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act "are going to take some time."

Chafee said the committee will conduct hearings to examine the repeal of companies' retroactive liability for Superfund cleanups, a major item on the business community's list.

And although objections are mounting to Clean Air Act provisions requiring tougher emissions inspections for autos, Chafee said the law should not be reopened.

He said, "I believe most of these problems in the states can be handled by regulation" at the Environmental Protection Agency rather than by legislation.