STATEMENT BY SENATOR BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL

COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC WORKS

February 13, 2002

I would like to welcome Administrator Whitman and look forward to her testimony.

The events of September 11^th have caused a dramatic change in national priorities. The EPA's budget has, like every executive agency, been forced to reprioritize based on new and immediate threats.

The Environmental Protection Agency's role in cleaning up the Hart Senate Office Building establishes a new dynamic to that Agency's duties.

The EPA has several other challenges to address in the form of controversial legislative initiatives.

This Committee has had three hearings on a bill known as the multi-pollutant or "four pollutant" legislation. As a senator from a Western state, I strongly oppose that proposal for several reasons. First, that bill, S. 556, places undue and costly burdens on power producers in my state of Colorado with minimal or uncertain benefits.

Second, that bill completely ignores differences inherent to the West and lacks any flexibility to address those differences.

Further, the four-pollutant bill would impose requirements on electric utilities similar to those already rejected by the President. The positions advanced by S. 556's proponents would directly counter our Commander-in-Chief based on questionable science using inefficient command and control mechanisms.

Yet, I also realize that certain reforms could be made, but emphasize that any contemplated reforms should take regional distinctions into consideration.

I look forward to continuing to work with the Administration to ensure the implementation of effective, efficient, progressive reforms that are sufficiently flexible to meet real concerns using the best science.

In short, we should fix problems where they exist without penalizing states where they do not.

Thank you, and I look forward to the testimony.