Environmental Panel’s New Look

Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.) was a Republican environmentalist in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt. As chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, he was instrumental in achieving bipartisan support for a strong Safe Drinking Water Act and other effective regulatory efforts. His death last week was a loss to many causes.

Today, the committee has a new chairman with a decidedly different record on the environment. He is conservative Republican Bob Smith of New Hampshire, who just gave up a quixotic run for the presidency as an independent and now is back in the GOP fold. One environmentalist groaned that Smith’s appointment would bring jubilation to oil, chemical and power companies.

Indeed, Smith has worked to make federal environmental regulation friendlier to business or, as he puts it, less confrontational. That’s not necessarily bad in terms of how laws and regulations are enforced, but it’s important that standards not be sacrificed in the process. Smith has a special interest in rewriting the Superfund law to ease the burden on some businesses in cleaning up toxic waste sites. On the other hand he has a fairly good record on fish and wildlife issues.

A Senate source calls Smith “a decent fellow” and hopes the senator will respond to the challenge of his new responsibility in a way that does not sacrifice the quality of the environment. That is a hope that most Americans, who do want clean air and water, would share.