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Comparison of Train and Ruckelshaus
Q: How did his style and interests differ from those of Ruckelshaus?
MR. ALM: They have an awful lot of common characteristics. Both of them are very shrewd judges of people. They are both extremely bright. Both are lawyers. Both have great senses of humor. They tend to do very well under pressure. For both of them the more pressure they get under, the more they can laugh at themselves in the situation. They are both very astute politically. I mean this in the good sense of understanding what is possible and getting it done. Finally, they have a great ability to delegate. Both Bill and Russ Train gave me a lot of responsibility. And yet they stayed on top of the important issues. So they are good managers in that sense.
Q: Did they have different interests?
MR. ALM: Well, Russ is most interested in wildlife kinds of issues. They interested him much more viscerally than many of the pollution issues. Not that pollution issues didn't interest him.
But, Ruckelshaus, at least in the second term, which was when I worked for him, was always grappling with the process of decision-making and how the public could be informed about choices. He saw his role as that of the chief environmental educator.
Train had the good fortune of being at EPA during the years when most was accomplished. During the first three and a half years, EPA was mainly getting its act together and getting the programs started to implement the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act of 1972. During the '74 through '77 period, very measurable improvements in air and water pollution occurred from EPA implementation of this legislation.