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Exchange Club, Grand Rapids, MI, October 26, 1970
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4526334
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Exchange Club, Grand Rapids, MI, October 26, 1970
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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Environmental protection
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1970
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The original documents are located in Box D30, folder "Exchange Club, Grand Rapids,
MI, October 26, 1970" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File
at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Remarks by Rep. berald Ri ford club before The
Grand Rapids 12 NOON Exchange OCT. 26, 1970 M Office copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD R-MICH
ONLY
REPUBLICAN LEADER U.S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE THE DELAWARE COUNTY, PA., CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
READING
AZ MEDIA PENNSYLVANIA
Have MM OCTOBER 19707
copy
MADE
NOON, MONDAY, OCT.26
FOR RELEASE AT
We are nearing the end of the first year of a new decade. We are passing
through the gateway of the Seventies. We are moving onto the pathway of progress--
progress toward peace, prosperity and plenty.
The great problems of the Sixties are yielding to the solutions of the
Seventies.
Sizable steps have been taken toward peace with honor in Vietnam.
There are clear signs of success in the fight against inflation. We are
winning that fight, and we are in the early stages of a new era of growth in the
economy.
And despite some reluctance on the part of some in Congress, we are moving
to reform the social and political conditions left over from the past, conditions
which have no place in the United States of the Seventies.
But government cannot achieve goals or priorities alone. It can reach its
major objectives only with the help of the private sector, only by drawing upon the
strength and resources of private enterprise. It can achieve national goals only as
it is aided by business and industry, the academic world, and by all of our citizens.
But What of the environmental crisis? That will be a test more severe than
any other for business and industry.
Is the business community ignoring the pollution of our atmosphere ?
we drink and the air we breathe the wanton destruction of our environment?
There are those who would have America believe SO. But they are dead wrong.
They are wrong on the facts, and they are wrong in their approach to the problems
involved in restoring our environment.
I agree with those who set tough goals for industry to reach--who sees
GER R. a FORD LIBRARY
pollution-free automobile engine by 1975 or '76, Prinstance.
But bear in mind that it was not until the 1950's that automotive fuels were
found to be one of the major causes of smog We have made signi licant progress in
meeting the problem since then.
The 1970 cars, for instance, emit only a fraction of the pollutants that were
emitted from a car built as recently as 1960, and the automotive industry has
committed itself to solving the pollution problem completely at the earliest
possible time. In that connection, the automotive industry has the full cooperation
(more)
Digitized from Box D30 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-4-
of the oil industry, which is modifying the content of its fuel.
Ald of us became excited on Earth Day this year. There was reason to become
excited. We finally realized that the poisoning of our atmosphere threatens our very
survival.
however.
A challenge to our survival does not justify national hysteria Hysteria
has never produced any rational solutions to our problems.
But
going to bet on who will come up with a solution to automotive
Letme say that
pollution I would much rather put my money on the men in Detroit or on Bill Lear,
the engineering genius who is developing a steam turbine car, than on the college
youths
cars
who
dig
hole
on
campus
and
bury
in the ground.
There is a critical need today to bring man into harmony with nature. But
don't think we should to do it by attaching industry or declaring war
on industry and
I
shutting
economic progress.
We must declare war on environmental pollution, and it is a war we must win.
But we must pursue a grand strategy in waging that war, not engage in a
targetting of industry which will wreck our economic machine and put people out of
work.
Again, as in the crusade to aid the disadvantaged with training and jobs,
(W
need a partnership between government and business. In fact we need a network
of partnerships--between government and business, between the Federal government and
state and local governments, between government and the individual citizen.
Working together we can meet the environmental crisis. Working against each
other, we can only come to grief.
It is vital that we work together.
We should adopt the
I do not think it is helpful for the extreme environmentalists to sheer at the
37-point anti-pollution program President Nixon sent to Congress last February
of
sponsored ground that only seven extreme would be otheadministrations will if be useful in combatting anti polution pollution. would Gills.
Ldo
think
helpful
the
majority
party
in
Congress
atleast Creen to hold hold hearings
on
the
my
Environmental Financing Authority
bill which is intended to help finance the State and local share of waste treatment
plants.
I am proud of my record on environmental issues. I have voted in favor of every
practical anti-pollution measure during my entire stay in the Congress. And I
in funds
have had a hand in bringing nearly $1.5 millionAto Kent and Ionia Counties for sewer
and water improvements and $3.1 million for more parklands. I'll gladly stand on that
record.
GERALD
LYBRARY
I do not think it is helpful to pose the environmental question in terms of
a choice between clean air and water or more and more kilowatts, a livable
environment or more and more cars. I think we will have more kilowatts but clean
air and water as well. I think we will achieve a livable environment despite more
and more cars. Let us not engage in a game of silly doomsday alternatives. We can
(more)
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-5-
find the answers without that kind of wonsenue.
the President's environmental message of last February
represented a landmark. It was the first time the people had been given a
presidential assessment of the state of their environment. It was the first time
in recent history that a President of the United States had committed himself to a
crusade for a clean environment, a restoration of our land to its former state of
America the Beautiful.
I firmly believe that congressional approval of the President's environmental
proposals would be a great step toward improving the quality of our environment.
I think it appropriate and healthy that in the President's water pollution
control program the Federal cost-share of the four-year program would be
$4 billion and the State and local shares, $6 billion.
Stet
This is in line with an updated Federal Water Quality Administration report
which puts the Nation's requirements for community waste treatment facilities at
$9.9 billion over the next four years.
In addition to the roughly $10 billion needed in municipal sewage treatment
facilities, the FWQE also estimates that an additional $15 to $17 billion must be
spent over the next four years or five years for sanitary sewer construction,
industrial sewage treatment works, industrial cooling facialities and for municipal
and industrial operating and maintenance costs.
Action must be taken to stimulate a greatly expanded program of water pollution
control by local communities. That is where the President's Environmental Financing
Authority comes in, with Federal underwriting of local bond issues.
additional
Federal funding is not the sole answer. The
FWQA
reports
cited
earlior
revealed that the $880 million local communities put into water pollution control in
1969 did little more than cover replacement and growth needs. In addition, the report
showed that the ratio of community funding put up to match Federal grants has slipped
from $13.70 . per Federal water pollution control dollar spent in 1960 to $5.20 per
Federal dollar at present. Stimulus is needed.
At the same time, water pollution control investments by industry apparently
were at a level of $500 million in 1968 and $700 million in 1969, with more than
half of the wastes treated in public facilities having their origin in industry.
the most desirable policy is to accept all industrial wastes that
FORD
can be treated in municipal plants but to establish user fees in line with the costs
LIBRARY
incurred to collect and treat wastes.
Government must oversee the war on pollution but government need not be
in fact must not be hostile to the private sector. In partnership, we will go
forward
The important consideration is to lay down rules for fighting the war against
pollution and then to enforce those rules fairly and impartially upon all parties.
(more)
-6-
The American people are aroused. They can take and will take effective
action.
We will win this war against pollution, and it will be a victory for the free
enterprise system.
Only in freedom can men respond to the need for change in a manner
which does not impose upon the dignity of the human spirit.
Freedom as we know it under the free enterprise system produces an explosion
of ideas and incentives and an ever growing stimulus to human betterment.
Freedom allows man to do those things which he ought to do, for his own
spiritual and physical well-being and for the spiritual and physical well-being of
his children and his children's children.
In freedom we will win.
Victory in this war against pollution will be a
triumph of the human spirit. It will be a technological triumph made possible by
the joint effort of millions of Americans and the expenditure of billions of dollars.
It will constitute the biggest task in man's history, involving the building of a
complex technology resulting from the recruitment of the world's best minds.
Let us give full rein to the growing possibilities of improving man's
environment. If we do this, and if we go forward in freedom, we can meet this
challenge to save our environment from destruction.
# # #
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
Distribution: all Fifth Destrict news media office Copy
10/21/70 pm. only
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 12 NOON MONDAY--
October 26, 1970
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford before the Grand Rapids Exchange Club
What of the environmental crisis?
We must declare war on environmental pollution, and it is a war we must win.
But we must pursue a grand strategy in waging that war, not engage in a targetting
of industry which will wreck our economic machine and throw thousands of people out
of work.
Meeting the environmental crisis will be a test more severe than any other
for business and industry.
I agree with those who set tough goals for industry to reach--who seek a
pollution-free automobile engine by 1975 or 1976, for instance. But we have made
significant progress in meeting the problem, and the automotive industry has
committed itself to solving the pollution problem at the earliest possible time.
I'm betting that the men in Detroit or Bill Lear, the engineering genius who
is developing a steam turbine car, will lick the automotive pollution problem for us.
There is a critical need today to bring man into harmony with nature. But I
don't think we should do it by declaring war on industry and shutting off all
economic progress.
We need a partnership between government and business. In fact, we need a
network of partnerships in the war against pollution--between government and business,
between the Federal Government and the state and local governments, between government
and the individual citizen.
Working together we can meet the environmental crisis. Working against each
other, we can only come to grief.
We should adopt the 37-point anti-pollution program President Nixon sent to
Congress last February. I sponsored all seven of the Administration's major anti-
pollution bills. It would be helpful if the majority party in Congress would at
least hold hearings on my Environmental Financing Authority bill which is designed
to help finance the State and local share of waste treatment plants.
I am proud of my record on environmental issues. I have voted in favor of
every practical anti-pollution measure during my entire stay in the Congress. And
I have had a hand in bringing nearly $1.5 million to Kent and Ionia Counties for
sewer and water improvements and $3.1 million for more parklands. I'll gladly stand
on that record.
###