Seymour, EPA Chief Reassure Executives : Environment: They say they will work to ease the effect of controls on business while upholding standards.

U.S. Sen. John Seymour and Environmental Protection Administration chief William K. Reilly assured a group of Southern California business leaders Thursday that they will work to ease the economic effect of environmental controls on business and industry.

That does not necessarily mean any lessening of environmental standards, Reilly added, when he and Seymour (R-Calif.) briefed reporters after the private breakfast meeting with about 15 business executives. The emphasis should be on more efficient implementation and enforcement programs to achieve those standards, he said.

Seymour and Reilly called the meeting so the executives could air their concerns about the effect of regulation on the business climate.

The cost of environmental regulation has been cited as one of the reasons California businesses are cutting back, failing or moving out of state, particularly during the current recession. Concern about the economy has triggered a widespread debate over the effect of environmental regulations.

Seymour, appointed to the Senate by Gov. Pete Wilson a year ago and now seeking election to the rest of Wilson’s Senate term, said one message the two officials heard was that “there needs to be more common sense applied in realizing the economic impacts” of environmental regulation.

Secondly, Seymour said, federal regulators should be willing to “get out of your way” in cases where California has stronger pollution controls than the federal government and is enforcing such laws itself.

Reilly said that federal environmental regulators need to take “a more systematic” approach to their jobs and better coordinate various federal and state environmental control programs.

“We’ve got to factor much more science and much more economic analysis into making these decisions,” added Reilly, a former president of the Conservation Foundation.

President Ray Remy of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce said Reilly had a “very positive” attitude toward the business executives’ problems while making it clear he could not compromise environmental standards that have been written into law by the Congress.

“One of the criticisms of EPA was a rigid mentality that is tied too strictly to the law and is not very sensitive to external issues,” Remy added.

At one point, Seymour said that protection of 200 salmon under provisions of the Endangered Species Act had threatened the operations of the Port of Oakland at a potential cost of 100,000 jobs and $4.5 billion in the San Francisco Bay Area economy. The threat was averted with a compromise agreement worked out by the federal agencies involved, he said.

While the business executives expressed concern about the costs of regulation, Reilly noted that environmental laws can produce benefits as well. He specifically cited the new Clean Air Act.

Reilly said, “The economic benefits of that law have been significantly underestimated. . . . These funds are not dropped down a hole. They’re going to create cutting-edge, high-technology jobs all across this country. . . . They are productive jobs.”

Commenting later, Bob Hattoy of the Sierra Club, said, “It’s amazing that this Administration started with George Bush wanting to be the environmental President. Now, since he is not, he has to blame this situation with the economy on the environmentalists.”