Good
environment to good economy
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- A group of 104
economists, including two Nobel Prize winners,
sent a letter Wednesday to President Bush
and Western governors saying that policies
that harm the environment also harm the
economy in the long run.
''Those
who promise that workers, firms and communities
tied to environmentally harmful activities
can avoid these pressures if only the environmental
laws, such as the Endangered Species Act,
were set aside raise false hopes,'' the
letter said. ''Even if such laws were repealed,
the costs of environmentally harmful activities
will continue to rise and jeopardize the
economic outlook for affected communities.''
The
letter said the economic importance of agriculture,
logging, mining and commercial fishing have
diminished steadily, both in terms of numbers
of jobs and levels of pay. As the population
increases, habitat for fish and wildlife
shrinks and many native species face extinction.
''Reversing
the trend becomes more expensive over time,''
the letter said. ''As ecosystems are degraded,
they provide fewer economically valuable
services, such as cleansing the water in
streams, and communities therefore must
provide replacement services with water-treatment
plants.''
Government
subsidies of irrigation, logging, livestock
grazing and mining prop up activities that
could not survive in efficient market conditions,
the letter said. Artificially low costs
for roads, water and pollution create false
impressions of the cost of urban sprawl,
according to the scientists.
White
House spokesman Ken Lisaius said the Bush
administration had a strong agenda for improving
and preserving the environment.
''This
administration is committed to improving
our environment, our air quality and water
quality, protecting our land and building
on the progress made over the last decade,''
he said.
Drafting and circulating the letter among
the economists spread across the nation
was coordinated by Ed Whitelaw, a University
of Oregon professor of economics and president
of ECONorthwest, an economic consulting
firm that has done work for environmental
groups, and Ernie Niemi, also of ECONorthwest.
''It
is precisely the policies we see threatening
economic growth in the West that are promoted
as stimulating jobs and income and so on,''
Whitelaw said in a telephone interview from
his office in Eugene. ''There is definitely
a disconnect between the professionals who
study this stuff day in and day out and
those who are implementing the policies,
even though each of the two groups purports
to serve the same purpose, economic prosperity.''
Among
those signing the letter were Robert Solow,
professor of economics at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and winner of the
Nobel Prize for economics in 1987, and
Kenneth
Arrow, professor emeritus of economics at
Stanford University and winner of the Nobel
Prize in 1972.
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