Thank you Administrator Browner for appearing here to testify in support of EPA's fiscal year 2001 budget request. First, I complement you on your visionary and tireless leadership at the helm of EPA. Your dedication to enhancing and protecting public health and environmental quality improves each of our lives and guarantees that we will leave a better planet to future generations.
The superb economic and environmental record of the Clinton-Gore Administration demonstrates quite clearly that we need not choose between economic growth and environmental protection. Over the past seven years, this Administration has shown that meeting environmental and economic challenges are highly compatible goals. As a result, few people would dispute the observation that a healthy environment provides the foundation for a prosperous economy.
The FY01 budget request includes funding for many valuable programs and initiatives. For example, the Better America Bonds (BABS) initiative represents a creative funding mechanism, which will help communities achieve their local environmental protection and conservation goals. Rather than mandating a standardized approach, the BABS program allows state and local governments to decide how to protect their air, water, and landscape while they develop their communities. For example, BABS would provide communities the flexibility to sponsor brownfields redevelopment projects or open space and parkland conservation. Last year, Senators Baucus and Hatch introduced legislation similar to the Administration's BABS proposal and I hope we will move this bill forward this year.
In light of our shared goal to improve air quality, I applaud the inclusion in this budget request of $227 million for the Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI). The voluntary programs of the CCTI represent a common sense approach to improving our energy efficiency. In addition to protecting earth's climate, reducing U.S. energy use will reduce our dependence on expensive foreign oil supplies and improve our balance of trade. Some have criticized the CCTI because it would help us reduce our nation's greenhouse gas emissions. This criticism reflects the fact that some confuse voluntarily reducing greenhouse gas emissions with implementing the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto treaty notwithstanding, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that climate change poses a very real threat to the global environment. Failure to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions would be foolhardy.
Finally, I look forward to our upcoming discussions regarding EPA's proposed rule on total maximum daily loads. This rulemaking process is generating a great deal of discussion and I look forward to a final rule that ensures meaningful protection of our nation's lakes and rivers so that we will one day achieve the our long-standing goal of having all of America's waters fit for swimming and fishing.
Thank you again for holding this important hearing, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working with you and the other members of the Committee to ensure that America continues to enjoy an increasingly healthy environment and vigorous economy.