Examples of CSI projects underway include the following:

. The Metal Finishing subcommittee is working with environmental leaders of the
metal finishing industry in Detroit and Cleveland to provide flexibility and reduce
regulatory burden on these small businesses in exchange for improved
environmental performance. The result will be cost-savings to metal finishers
and a cleaner environment.

. The Petroleum Refining subcommittee is rewriting the rules to consolidate,
streamline and simplify the air emissions reporting requirements facing oil
refineries, as well as to increase access to information by affected communities.
The project is now underway in Texas City, Texas.

° The Iron and Steel subcommittee has developed principle s to clean up
abandoned iron and steel “brownfields” -- urban, contaminated property -- and
retum them to productive uses. The project will create sustainable economic
opportunities with new jobs, while also protecting the environment. Projects are
now underway in Birmingham, Alabama and Northwest Indiana.

. The Computers and Electronics subcommittee is working on ways to eliminate
RCRA barriers (EPA’s hazardous waste program) to pollution prevention,
recycling and water conservation in the computers and electronics industry.

. The Auto Manufacturing subcommittee is designing principles to a more flexible
regulatory approach that results in reduced burden on industry, a cleaner
environment, and improved community participation in environmental decision
making.

. The Printing subcommittee is developing a permit system for printers that

provides operational flexibility, reduces pollution across all media (air, water,
land), and improves protection of workers, communities and the environment.

Contacts for the Common Sense Initiative

General Information: (202) 260-7417
Common Sense Initiative Council: Prudence Goforth (202) 260-7417
Auto Manufacturing Sector Subcommittee: Carol Kemker (404) 347-3555
Computers and Electronics Sector Subcommittee: Gina Bushong (202) 260-3797
lron and Steel Sector Subcommnittee: Mahesh Podar (202) 260-5387
Metal Finishing Sector Subcommittee: Bob Benson (202) 260-8668
Petroleum Refining Sector Subcommittee: Meg Kelly (703) 603-7188
Printing Sector Subcommittee: Ginger Gotliffe (202) 564-7072

To be added to the CS! Mailing List, please contact Brenda Collington at (202) 260-7417.


United States Environmental Common Sense Initiative EPA 400-F-95-001

Protection Agency (6101) April 1996
The Common Sense Initiative
A NEW GENERATION OF

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

We want to make good on what business and environmentalists
have been telling us for two decades — that we must look at whole
facilities, whole industries, and their overall impact on the

environment. We must do a better job of cleaning up the
environment.and do it cheaper.

The current system of environmental regulation is the most advanced in
the world and has achieved a great deal over the past 25 years. Many of
the large crises have been solved. Rivers no longer catch fire. Our skies
are cleaner. Many toxic sites have been cleaned up. But everyone
agrees the limits of the current system are near. Laws such as the Clean
Water Act were appropriate first-line responses to disasters like the
buming of the Cuyahoga River in the summer of 1969. However, the
current U.S. regulatory system addresses air, water and land separately,
frequently shifting and shuffling pollution without preventing it. As a result,
U.S. businesses spent close to $30 billion on environmental compliance in
1992, but still released over three billion pounds of toxic emissions.
Today's less obvious, more complicated problems require a new approach
to environmental protection.

The current approach has spawned two major obstacles to
comprehensive environmental protection. First, innovation and common
sense can be stifled by a system of environmental regulation that is too
complicated and rigid. A typical small business, for instance, may be
subject to as many as ten major environmental statutes that require
dozens of reporting requirements without getting the best environmental
results. Second, the complexity and rigidity of today's regulatory system
often breeds conflict, gridlock, and an adversarial relationship between the
concepts of a cleaner environment and a healthy economy. EPA
operates under 16 major statutes and under the jurisdiction of over 70
Congressional committees and subcommittees. EPA is subject to over
600 lawsuits at any given time. The current process often diverts valuable
resources from the real work of protecting the environment and public
health.


What Is the Common Sense Initiative?

EPA Administrator Carol Browner's Common Sense Initiative (CSI) is a fundamentally different
vision of environmental policy. Through this initiative, EPA has convened representatives from
federal, state, and local governments, community-based and national environmental groups,
environmental justice groups, labor, and industry to examine the full range of environmental
requirements impacting six pilot industries. These six teams are looking for opportunities to
change complicated and inconsistent environmental regulations into comprehensive strategies
for environmental protection that all can agree to, with an emphasis on pollution prevention,
instead of end-of-pipe solutions. The initiative reflects the Clinton Administration's commitment
to setting strong environmental standards, while encouraging common sense, innovation, and
flexibility in how they are met. The goal: a cleaner environment at less cost to taxpayers and
industry.

The six industries for the initial phase of the Common Sense Initiative are:

Automobile Manufacturing Metal Finishing
Computers and Electronics Petroleum Refining
lron and Steel Printing

RES A SS TE IE OS EE EP A |
U.S. Gross Domestic Product

These six industries form a
, fs ‘S| INDUSTRIES
sizeable piece of the American a

economy, comprising over 11%
of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product...

employing nearly 4 million people...

#
‘SI INDUSTRY TOXIC RELEASES

..and accounting for 12.4%
of the toxic releases reported by
all American industry in 1992.



How the Common Sense Initiative Works

CSI operates under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which specifies how
federal agencies may seek advice from outside stakeholders. The Common Sense
Initiative Council (CSIC) is the parent Council, which coordinates the work of six
subcommittees (one per industry sector). The Council and subcommittees have
participants representing the stakeholder groups listed above.

csi
Council
Automobile Computers & Metal Petroleum a
Manufacturing Electronics \ron and Steel Finishing Refining Printing

Each of the CSI subcommittees have projects underway to test creative alternatives to
command and control regulation, including projects to:

. Reduce duplicative reporting requirements;

. Streamline the permits process;

. Improve community involvement in environmental decision-making;
. Find incentives for and eliminate barriers to pollution prevention; and
. Explore altematives to the current regulatory system to provide more

flexibility in how standards are met.

Recommendations made to EPA by these multistakeholder teams are being translated
into policy and/or regulatory changes, where appropriate. This sector-by-sector
approach is expected to bring fundamental change to EPA's efforts to protect the
environment and public health. In addition, these changes may have broad application
outside of the six industry sectors currently participating in CSI.

During CSI's first year, significant progress was made by the six multistakeholder
teams. The CSI Council and industry subcommittees were formed in January 1995.
Approximately 150 subcommittee and workgroup meetings were held in CSI’s first year,
during which consensus was reached on priorities and areas of concem for each
sector. Thirty-seven projects have been initiated by the subcommittees to test these
new approaches and develop policy recommendations.