The White House Conference on Environmental Technologies on December 11-14 in Washington, D.C. brought together Vice President Al Gore and administration officials with more than 1,200 industry, environmental, and government leaders from around the country. The conference was sponsored by the National Science and Technology Council , a cabinet-level policy group established and chaired by President Clinton. The NSTC is responsible for coordinating science and technology programs and policies throughout the federal government.
Vice President Gore led a delegation of senior officials including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown , Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary, EPA Administrator Carol Browner , NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, and Presidential Science Advisor John Gibbons. They were joined by business leaders representing both large and small companies; environmental leaders; academic experts; and state and local government officials from around the country including Vermont Governor and National Governors Association Chairman Howard Dean; and Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Gore addressed the conference with an outline of the Clinton administration's national environmental technology strategy. Participants used six roundtable discussions to focus on demonstration and verification, finance, research and development, incentives for innovation, exports and global markets, and education and training.
The address given by Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary outlined one of the major themes of the conference, increased flexibility in government, ". . . we [government] should give the business community the flexibility to do what it does best," O'Leary said and cited DOE's Environmental Management Program as a good example of government/industry partnership, adding that the program has leveraged private sector funding on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
Secretary O'Leary offered the voluntary pledge program, Climate Wise, as an example of an ongoing EPA/DOE program that has achieved improved regulatory compliance and cost savings. Secretary O'Leary and EPA Administrator Carol Browner honored several companies including DuPont, Martin Marietta, Quad Graphics, Johnson and Johnson, and Fetzer Vineyards for exceeding pollution reduction targets in the first six months of the Climate Wise Program.
Department of Energy's Environmental Management official, Thomas Grumbly, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, chaired one of the conference roundtables and Clyde Frank, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Development participated in breakout sessions. Grumbly's roundtable group on demonstration and verification developed five key ideas to be forwarded to the plenary policy roundtable for discussion.
The final event of the conference was a plenary policy roundtable discussion chaired by the vice president, and included senior administration officials and leaders from the private sector and state and local governments. A number of key points were made, including: the need for industrial societies to move towards pollution avoidance; the need to encourage innovation through a re-vamped regulatory system which replaces confrontation and control with incentives; the importance of the role of stakeholder partnerships in achieving common goals; that there are already economic opportunities for industry and investors; and the need to communicate nationally and world-wide how environmental technology, as the bridge to sustainable development, can bring both economic and environmental benefits.
Ideas discussed at the conference will be translated into a strategy document which will become part of the government's environmental policy. The final strategy and policies will be announced on Earth Day 1995. In closing, Gore identified and praised the various agency-generated programs contributing to environmental technology and sustainable development including the formation of the Interagency Environmental Technology Office.
