4 PMpiMon Page 8 Wednesday; May 13, 1981 The Michigan Daily The Michigan Daily Vol. XCI, No. 6-S Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan No apocalypse IT WOULD BE advisable for the idealogues of the Reagan administration to exhibit an uncharacteristic but requisite cool over last Sunday's presidential election in France. The unexpected ascendence to power of veteran Socialist leader Francois Mitterrand, together with his stated plan to nationalize his country's industry, has caused the French stock exchange to virtually crumble in panic; the shock waves thus far emanating out of Washington seem hardly less vibrant, with the White House's obvious horror over Mit- terrand's upset victory barely concealed un- derneath the stiffly formal congratulations issued by the Oval Office. Already domestic alarmists are conjuring up apocalyptic visions of Marxist France bridled with a collectivist economy and a neutral, even pro-Moscow foreign policy. They warn the possible inclusion of French Communists in Mitterrand's government will breed spies within NATO, indeed may eventually wreck the entire defense structure of Western Europe. Such doomsday prophecies betray the originators' political bias rather more than their gifts'of prognostication. Committed socialist though he is, Mitterrand is also a passionate democrat disinclined to join hands with political forces likely to shift his nation toward a totalitarian mold.We would do well to proceed with comparable diplomatic sobriety. Bob Marley WHEN AN immensely popular artist in America passes on, it is de reguer to reflect upon the imprimatur the artist left upon our culture. But to do that when thinking about the cancer-induced death Monday of Bob Marley would be to utterly miss much of what the singer lived for. Welding a militant stance to popular island music, Marley in time became infinitely more than a pop star to thousands of poor Jamaican blacks: He epitomized a final hope, a saviour. Hs, political power in his nation can be eneasured in many ways, the least not being that he was ultimately forced to leave Jamaica after he was wounded in an assassination at- tempt. Elections last year on the island changed the political order, but true progress remains achingly lacking. It is pathetic and frightening when a society rears up and poisons its own fruits, taking away a figure like John Lennon. But it is a different horror when, as in Bob Marley's case, it is nature itself which steals away hope. Fox in the henhouse? By J. H. Taylor WASHINGTON, D.C. - Anne McGill Gorsuch, the newly con- firmed head of the Environmen- tal Protection Agency (EPA), is moving her office this week from the Interior Department, where she had been camped out during the confirmation process, over to EPA. The fact of her temporary residence at Interior has raised sharp concerns among environ- mentalists and others over where her commitment lies - with the Interior Department and its development bias, or with EPA and protection of the environ- ment. As a Colorado legislator, Gor- such and her colleague, Speaker Robert Burford, hired James Watt's Mountain States Legal Foundation to sue the EPA over auto emission regulations man- dated by the Federal Clear Air Act. The suit failed, but Gorsuch, Burford and Watt formed a close friendship and working relation- ship. Today, James Watt is Secretary of the Interior and has already emerged as the con- troversial key environmental policy maker in the Reagan Ad- ministration. Roert Burford, still a close personal friend of Gorsuch, has come to Washington to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees millions of acres of Federal land. And AnneGor- such now heads the EPA. A CHIEF concern expressed during Gorsuch's confirmation hearings revolved around the question of how much indepen- dence these different agencies maintain from one another, given their tight network of personal friendships at the top. Said Senator Max Baucus (D.-Mont.), "I am concerned that the (EPA) Administrator be the primary environmental policy maker, not others such as Secretary Watt." While Gorsuch stressed her in- tention to maintain her indepen- dence from Watt, serious questions remain about how she can do so. Watt now heads a new "cabinet council" on natural resources and the environment that is supposed to coordinate the actions of many agencies, in- cluding the EPA, involved in these areas. Questioned as to how decisions would be made in this council, Gorsuch said she did not yet know. Since her appointment was an- nounced two and a half months ago, environmentalists have suspected Gorsuch of wanting to dismantle the agency. There were rumors that she intended to cut the staff by 10 to 20 percent and remove some 300 of its senior managers. In addition, fears hay gbeen widely expressed that Gorsuch will be amendable to industry demands that a key provision of EPA laws be removed. This provision has made it possible for extensive intervention in EPA rule-making, via civil lawsuits, whenever there is evidence that the agency is not fulfilling its mandate to protect public health and the environment. More than almost any other agency in Washington, the EPA was ac- countable to its constituiency, and its constituency was viewed as environmentalists. The closing of this window of public intervention in the agency is expected to e a major goal of industry, and there is evidence that the new Administration will ( be cooperative. AT HER confirmation hearing, Ms. Gorsuch stressed President Reagan's commitment to regulatory reform, emphasizing that "reform is not limited to withdrawal of unnecessary or overly burdensome singular regulations, but envisions a much broader scope involving the process by which new regulations are formulated and current regulations evaluated." Administratively, Gorsuch can modify, repeal, or even annul regulations. But that does not remove the statutory requirements for protecting the environment. A wholesale review of EPA's regulations is a mam- moth undertaking and does nothing to eliminate the uncer- tainties industry faces. As Sierra Club spokesman Carl Pope ob- served: "If I was in industry in a position where the rapid issuance of EPA permits was important to me, I would be terrified of this Administration." Another reform which Gorsuch is expected to seek - the removal of many senior level civil servan- ts - has raised fears not only among environmentalists, ut e sen nin someiJndustrialists. the senior level managers at EPA are not Democratic "eco- freaks," as they are often por- trayed. They are career civil ser- vants, most of whom worked in the Nixon and Ford Ad- ministrations, and they can provide needed continuity. FRANK FRIEDMAN, who manages environmental affairs for Atlantic Richfield Company, expressed concern about the development of a confrontational attitude in EPA, and mistrust between the old timers and the new team, noting: "If the bureaucrats are not with you, they can turn a system around." Some mistrust has already developed, partly beacuse of Gorsuch's previous fight against 4 EPA and her close association with Secretary Watt and BLM director Burford. Observers noted that Gorsuch visited the BLM offices and introduced her- self to staffers there before she visited the EPA offices. Said one departing EPA official, who requested anonymity, "They are treating them (EPA staffers) with the same kind of mistrust that Stalin showed for Russian prisoners of war returning home from Germany, and it has shout as much logic. There is no reason for it. Of course no one ever expected President Reagan's appointee to EPA to please the environmen- talists. But the troubling question now is whether she can please the industrial and business con- stituency. The EPA has long been ac- cused of hurting industry and business through overzealous regulations. But overzealous change in the name of reform could have the same effect. Correspondent J. H. Taylor wrote this story for Pacific 1News SerVice. I I a