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Regulatory flexibility
Q: Did you become, or did your strategy become, more conciliatory towards the regulated community? The bubble concept seemed to give greater flexibility to previously pretty intransigent sectors of industry.
MR. COSTLE: No, flexibility was in our earliest thinking. That came out of my experience in Connecticut, where we said, "We have got to find other ways to skin this cat." You can be confrontational for only so long and then, if either the statutes or your own policies don't permit you the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, you're going to get hung eventually for bureaucratic rigidity. What may surprise you is that these "new" ideas were not the product of the '80s or '90s. EPA was already exploring and promoting these ideas in the late 1970s. So I wouldn't say that the energy crisis initiated our stance on balancing environmental protection and other national concerns. But EPA was on the defensive, and we had to recapture the political high ground. We had to remind everybody of the public health impact of the problems we were dealing with, that it wasn't just a tree-hugger issue. We had laws that were only beginning to be implemented, and we were finding new problems. We thought that we really had to rebuild the constituency for the agency. We had to reduce the friction between the Agency and Congress. We had to develop an alliance with the White House and OMB that would give us the credibility to speak for the Administration. We had to signal our various constituencies -- be they the industries we regulated or the public interest groups that were counting on us, or just ordinary citizens -- what were doing and why. The public needed to understand that we were working in its interests.
To industry, it meant giving clear signals. It meant a red light or a green light, but not a flashing yellow. I find that this analogy resonates in talking with businesspeople. My message was that the only things that will work will be those that make common sense. The law was the law, and EPA would enforce it. But I wanted them to find the Agency to be rational and reasonable, not arbitrary and capricious. That wasn't in EPA's -- or anyone's -- interests. I tried to give the regulated community the sense that, if they came to us with legitimate comments and concerns, we would respond. If they just tried to bully us or manipulate issues politically, they were going to have a fight on their hands. And I told the staff, simultaneously, that the reputation I wanted the Agency to have is that of a fair and reasonable regulator. The bottom line is that the job is going to get done. If anyone can show us a better way to do it, we're interested in hearing it.
Now, moving an entire agency to think that way, particularly when it's in a defensive posture, is tough. It's been true of EPA since its founding that, when you're walking down the hall, somebody always seems to be yelling, "Incoming, incoming." That of course is the nature of the beast. You can't take an industrial economy as big and as complex as ours and turn it in a new direction without upsetting people. There's too much inertia and vested interest in the status quo. So you've got to believe in what you're doing and be tough about it. At the same time, however, if you're senseless about it, you'll suddenly turn around and find no followers.