Al Gore and I know that our children's health and well-being depend on having clean air to breathe and pure water to drink. We know that the health and safety of our laborers depends on safe working conditions. And we know that the very best within each of us is touched and inspired by the majesty of nature. Care for the environment unites us.
We have heard the argument that excessive environmental regulations are a leading cause of our economic decline, and that Americans will have to choose - either we can have a healthy environment or a strong economy, but we cannot have both.It's a false choice. If this argument were right, Germany and Japan, which enforce regulations as stringent or more stringent than U.S. environmental protections, would be in dire economic straits. If this argument were right, then the Eastern European nations, which made that choice, would be economic powerhouses. If this argument were right, then the one sector of our economy that has shown impressive growth over the last four years, the environmental products and services industries, would have been dead in the water like most other important sectors of the U.S. economy.
Economic strength will increasingly depend on sound environmental performance. Our com-pet-i-tors understand that achieving a healthy economy and a healthy environment are complementary, not contradictory, objectives. One of the reasons German workers make 25 percent more than the average American worker is that their industries use half the energy to produce the same amount of goods as U.S. firms. Japanese companies enjoy a 5 percent competitive price advantage in the global marketplace because of higher energy efficiency.
Developing countries are also an increasingly strong presence in the global marketplace. In 1991, while the economies of many of the industrialized countries were stagnant, the economies of many of the developing countries grew at some 6 percent. In 1991 also, these countries purchased more than a third of all U.S. exports. What types of products and processes are these countries demanding? Now suffering the effects of economic growth policies that did not consider environmental impact, they are demanding technologies and services that will fuel economic growth without destroying the en-vi-ron-ment.
Mexico, for example, is closing down factories not because their economic performance is poor, but because Mexican citizens are literally choking to death on the thick pollution. Mexico needs to get those factories running again; Mex-ico needs to buy equipment that will enable those factories to run cleanly.
Will U.S. firms meet that need?
Other developing and newly industrialized countries are making similar policy choices. Taiwan, for example, has experienced record industrial growth over the past two decades but has failed to deal with the toxic byproducts of that growth. Millions of tons of hazardous waste are simply dumped in unlined landfills, in rivers and streams every year, and a tiny fraction of industrial waste water is treated or purified. The air, too, has been poisoned as millions of cars spew sulfur dioxide and other particulates virtually without control. To tackle these problems, the Taiwanese government and industry leaders have committed to spending more than $20 billion over the next eight years to clean up past problems and to build the infrastructure necessary to limit future problems.
Will U.S. firms meet this de-mand?
Over the next 15 years, experts estimate that developing nations will need to install a trillion dollars' worth of energy technology to meet growing energy needs. These countries want clean and efficient sources of energy.
Will U.S. firms meet this de-mand?
Not if the United States is on the sidelines of the environmental revolution. Not if our businesses are told that concern for the environment is a fad that will pass and that the old, polluting ways will be acceptable in the future.
The evidence is unmistakable. We have seen important markets slip away from us. In 1980, the Unites States had three quarters of the world sales in solar technology. In 1990, German and Japanese com-petition had cut our share to 30 percent. We also used to supply the world with air pollution control technologies. Today, we import more than 70 percent of those technologies. And the list goes on.
Al Gore and I believe that the time for posing false choices has passed. For our children's sake, for the sake of improving worker health and safety, for the sake of enhancing the living standard of every American and for the sake of preserving our planet's precious natural resources, we cannot afford the practices of the past.
The Clinton administration will work for a better future for the American people. It will be a future built on a genuine commitment to leave our children a better nation whose air, water and land are unspoiled; whose natural beauty is undimmed and whose lead-er-ship for sustainable global growth is unsurpassed. This approach will challenge Americans and demand responsibility from individuals, families, communities, corporations and government a-gen-cies to do more to preserve the quality of our environment and our world.
Our country's leaders must be willing to exert international leadership on issues threatening the health of the planet. The Cold War is over, and we have entered a new era in which threats to our security are less evident but no less dangerous. If we do not find the vision and leadership to defeat the unprecedented new threats of global climate change, ozone depletion, habitat destruction and de-sert-i-fi-ca-tion, then those threats may well defeat us.