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EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner receiving Vice President Gore’s Hammer award for the Common Sense Initiative

Release Date: 12/18/98
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Attached is the White House announcement about EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner receiving Vice President Gore’s Hammer award for the Common Sense Initiative.


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                             THE WHITE HOUSE
                               
                  Office of the Vice President _____________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release: Friday, December 18, 1998                              
                               
       VICE PRESIDENT'S HAMMER AWARD PRESENTED TO EPA'S  
                               
                    COMMON SENSE INITIATIVE

     Washington, DC  -- On Thursday, December 17, Vice President Gore's hammer award was presented to Carol M. Browner, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, for bringing common sense reform to environmental regulation.

     Bob Stone, the Project Director of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government,  presented the award for EPA's Common Sense Initiative (CSI), a special reinvention effort launched by Administrator Browner in 1994 to address the regulatory obstacles and environmental challenges facing specific industrial sectors.

     "This Common Sense Initiative is reinventing government at its best," Vice President Gore said.  "Together, government, industry and the private sector are finding new, more effective ways to protect our environment and our children."

     CSI -- a partnership with more than 300 individuals from industry, state and local governments, environmental and environmental justice groups, and labor --  served as a laboratory for testing new environmental management approaches, based on the needs of industry and other interest groups.

     Six industrial sectors were selected to experiment with new approaches: automobile manufacturing, computers and electronics, iron and steel, metal finishing, petroleum, and printing.
 These sectors were strategically chosen to represent a broad array of industrial challenges. Together, they comprised 11 percent of the U.S. gross national product; employed more than four million people; and accounted for more than 12 percent of the toxic releases reported by American industry.

       CSI spawned environmental regulatory reforms and changes in industry and government business practices.  One of the most significant outcomes was an agreement reached with the metal finishing industry.  The agreement commits the industry to pursue innovative pollution prevention opportunities that go far beyond what the law requires.  EPA estimates significant reductions in toxic emissions and other environmental benefits when fully implemented.

       The Hammer award was created by the Vice President to honor teams of federal employees who are making the government work better and cost less.


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