Clinton administration

The Clinton Administration (1993-2000) that followed was far more inclined to embrace environmental activism than Reagan or Bush, and far more likely to propose command and control solutions to energy and environmental problems. However, the Clinton Administration also realized the need to allow markets to work, to do otheiwise would result in some of the disastrous consequences of intervention policies used in the 1970s. 

Unlike the gasoline tax that only impacts the transportation sector, carbon taxes affect all sectors of the economy. Implemented by some European countries and proposed in the United States by the Clinton Administration in 1993, the carbon tax makes consumption of fossil fuels more expensive for the energy user. The goals of a carbon tax are to reduce the consumption of energy and to make non-carbon emitting sources like wind and hydroelectric more cost-competitive with fossil fuels. 

Under the Clinton administration, the FCCSET Committee has become the National Science and Technology Committee (NSTC). The AMPP no longer exists as a stand-alone initiative, but its components have been folded into specific programs such as the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (the clean car initiative). 

Last summer the Clinton Administration forwarded a comprehensive restructuring bill to Congress. It is our hope that comprehensive restructuring legislation will be passed in the 1 06th Congress which includes the major features of the Administration s bill. 

The Clinton Administration believes that the overriding goal of the Federal Government s high-level radioactive waste management policy should be the establishment of a permanent geologic repository - essential not only for the disposal of commercial spent fuel, but also for... 

If nonproliferation considerations have not led to official opposition to nuclear power, their effect on fuel cycle policy has been profound. Although, its rhetoric and many of its implementating actions have been more restrained, the Clinton Administration has, in principle, adopted the Carter policy of opposition to reprocessing and plutonium recycle, hr at least one important area, however, it has inexplicably out-Cartered earlier policy by terminating work on proliferation-resistant firel cycles that involve recycle of still highly radioactive plutonium. 

House after the departure of the Clinton administration. Elsewhere the build-up of capacity in membrane caustic has picked up speed, especially in Asia where there was a slight delay owing to the crisis. 

In 1995 the Clinton Administration proposed placing the federally-owned Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve on the market as part of its efforts to reduce the size of government and return inherently non-fed-eral functions to the private sector. In 1996, the Congress passed and the President signed the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996 containing authorization to proceed with the sale. In 1998 the Department of Energy sold Elk Hills to Occidental Petroleum for 3.65 Billion. 

During the Clinton administration, the PNGV (Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles) program was started at the end of 1993. The long term goal was an environmentally friendly car with up to triple the fuel efficiency of current mid-size cars without sacrificing affordability, performance or safety. 

More than 6 billion has been spent on high-level waste disposal. Spent fuel can be deadly for tens of thousands of years. In order to isolate it from the environment, nuclear waste is to be buried deep underground. Nevada s Yucca Mountain has been under consideration for decades and many in the nuclear industry believe that the Clinton administration blocked action on this site to gain support in this area. 

Snyder, Jeff. An Argument for Assault Weapons. Insight on the News, vol. 10, October 3, 1994, pp. 34ff. Argues against the Clinton administration s claim that assault weapons should not be allowed to citizens because they have become the weapon of choice for criminals. The actions of criminals should not constrain the rights of citizens, and the very fact that police also use such weapons belies the argument that they are of no use for self-defense. 

In 1993, the Clinton administration proposed an 8.1 billion tax on insurance and chemical companies to pay for the cleanup of the 1,300 worst Superfund sites. In return, the government would have ended attempts to recover the cleanup costs through tort suits, but only for those sites. A.M. Best, an insurance rating company, estimated that the 8.1 billion was only a downpayment on a total environmental liability of 255 billion. In contrast, the total capital of the property and casualty industry was only 180 billion. Republican opposition prevented passage in both the House and the Senate (Quint 1994). 

The United States and China, the countries that rank one and two in carbon emission, have not signed the Kyoto Protocol. In the United States, the Clinton Administration never acted on it, and there were certain terms the Bush Administration did not support. The future of the Kyoto Protocol, like the future of atmospheric carbon, is unclear. 

USEPA, The Clinton Administration s Superfund Legislative Reform Principles, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, May 7, 1997. www.epa.gov. 

I must tell you, having been an official observer in Kyoto, and now at this conference, I do not see that much has changed. It appears to me that the Clinton administration intends to implement this treaty by osmosis, simply let it kind of filter in and everybody assumes that it is the thing to do. Well, I want to inform all our good friends and allies in Western Europe and Japan and Asia, Central and South America, that the United States democracy doesn t work that way. ... 

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