Promotion to The Highest Level

By Dick Thompson/Washington

The U.S. is currently the only industrialized nation that has not raised its environmental agency to ministerial status. That has not only caused diplomatic awkwardness at many international meetings on such topics as global warming and ozone depletion but has also raised skepticism about George Bush's promise to be "an environmentalist" in the Oval Office. Last week, after months of wrangling within the Administration, Bush joined the movement to elevate the Environmental Protection Agency to a Cabinet-level department. Said the President: "The environmental challenges that face America and the world are so important that they must be addressed from the highest level."

Supporters of Bush's action, including environmentalists and many leaders in both political parties, believe it could be much more than a symbolic gesture. Says William Ruckelshaus, an EPA chief under Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan: "There's no department immune from EPA's imprint, and when you're there at the same table, it's a little easier to get things done than if you're a notch below." The department could be an important step in elevating the environment to the ranks of the nation's major concerns, along with defense and the economy.

Several members of Congress have been drafting legislation to create a Department of Environmental Protection, and they plan to give it significant capabilities, broader than those of EPA. It would probably have a bureau of environmental statistics that would monitor the earth's vital signs and help settle disputes about the state of the planet's health. Says Senator John Glenn, an Ohio Democrat: "One of the difficulties in environmental issues is getting data you can rely on." The department would also be encouraged to streamline the tangle of environmental statutes and promote energy conservation.

Still, it remains to be seen whether Bush's move is mainly political, designed to satisfy an important constituency, as was Reagan's creation of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, or whether the President means to take a real Executive initiative. Observes Senator Albert Gore, a Tennessee Democrat: "It's not enough just to pull an extra chair to the Cabinet table. The Administration has to prove that this represents a substantive commitment to policy action."

After a year as President, Bush is getting generally low marks on the environment. His clean-air proposal, which is working its way through Congress, addresses some important domestic problems, especially acid rain. But he was slow to respond to the Alaskan oil-spill disaster and has yet to develop a strategy on such international issues as the extinction of species and global warming. He seems unshakable in his opposition to a higher gasoline tax, which could be an important step toward controlling the greenhouse effect.

To help him assert leadership in these areas, Bush needs a strong Secretary of the Environment. The obvious candidate is William Reilly, the EPA chief. A longtime conservationist, Reilly has been forceful in environmental causes, but he has sometimes been thwarted by White House chief of staff John Sununu and other Administration officials. Sununu, for example, has been skeptical about the threat of global warming, an issue that deeply concerns Reilly. The White House now needs to pull together on the environmental front. With broad support in Congress for an Environmental Department, advocates hope it can be created by April 22, which happens to be Earth Day 1990.