Industry groups Quotes

Effluent taxes are a license to pollute. If the tax is low or moderate there is little incentive to provide treatment prior to discharge. If the tax is too high some firms, because of size, marginal nature or age, may be forced to close. This can, and does, happen under existing water quality programs. But such shutdowns are directly related to water quality. Shutdowns due to effluent taxes which ignore water quality and produce no tangible benefits are economically and socially unacceptable.

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Edwin A. Locke, Jr., President, American Paper Institute, Testimony, Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Senate Committee on Public Works.
06/09/1970 | Full Details | Law(s): Clean Water Act

To remove jurisdiction of thermal discharges to the higher Federal level offers no evident benefits in the public interest, and on the contrary our experience has shown that it will lead to decisionmaking[sic] on the basis of arbitrary formulas without giving proper weight to the local conditions that do affect public interest.

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William S. Lee, Vice President for Engineering, Duke Power Co., on Behalf of Edison Electric Institute, Testimony, Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Senate Committee on Public Works.
04/28/1970 | Full Details | Law(s): Clean Water Act

Proposed new subsection 10(k) in section 4 of the bill (page 43, line 8), would prohibit the Federal Government from entering into contracts with, or providing financial assistance to, any person whose facilities are not in compliance with water quality standards…..This provision, as written, seems unwieldy. It could not be faithfully carried out without generating a tremendous amount of unnecessary paperwork and inconvenience for all concerned—Federal and State agencies, as well as industry.

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Peter N. Gammelgard, Senior Vice President for Public and Environmental Affairs, American Petroleum Institute, Testimony, Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Senate Committee on Public Works.
348704/28/1970 | Full Details | Law(s): Clean Water Act

[T]his bill could prevent continued production of automobiles . . . [and] is a threat to the entire American economy and to every person in America.

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Lee Iacocca, executive vice president of Ford Motor Company, 1970.
349001/01/1970 | Full Details | Law(s): Clean Air Act of 1970

[It would not be possible] to achieve the control levels specified in the bill . . .[M]anufacturers . . . would be forced to shut down.

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American Automobile Manufacturers Association, Testimony, Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution.
349101/01/1970 | Full Details | Law(s): Clean Air Act of 1970

We are particularly intrigued by the term byssinosis a thing thought up by venal doctors who attended last year’s ILO [International Labor Organization] meetings in Africa, where inferior races are bound to be afflicted by new diseases more superior people defeated years ago...As a matter of fact, we referred to the ‘cotton fever’ earlier, when we pointed out that a good chaw of B.L. dark would take care of it, or some snuff...Well, we want to tell Mr. [James] O’Hara [D-MI] that, and for all our life, we have hated federal interference in our lives businesses…Congressman O’Hara is typical of the lousy representation we get from time-serving Northern Democrats who sell their souls to the venal labor leaders.

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Unsigned editorial in America’s Textile Reporter, a trade publication.

[This bill is] “galloping socialism in one of its purest forms. [It is] “founded on sensationalism and irresponsibility, nurtured on emotionalism and passed…with total disregard of proven medical facts.

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The president of the West Virginias Coal Association, Quinn Morton.
03/01/1969 | Full Details | Law(s): General: Mine Safety

Far more could be accomplished by concentrating on motivation and other human factors than on mechanical or chemical factors. There is only a partial, indirect relationship between the enforcement of standards and the promotion of effective occupational safety and health programs.

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Wayne T. Brooks Director of Industrial Relations, American Iron and Steel Institute, testimony, Select Subcommittee on Labor.

The really important progress in occupational safety and health would require far more consideration of the man rather than the environment.

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Leo Teplow, vice-president and lead lobbyist for American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), testimony, Senate Subcommittee hearings on Labor and Public Welfare.

It has been noted over and over again that in the vast majority of occupational accidents, human failure is wholly or partly responsible....

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Leo Teplow, vice-president and lead lobbyist for American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), testimony, Senate Subcommittee hearings on Labor and Public Welfare.

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