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Project XL Announcement with Intel Corporation Chandler, AZ
11/19/1996| Carol M. Browner Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Project XL Announcement with Intel Corporation Chandler, AZ Prepared for Delivery November 19, 1996 I am very pleased to be here with representatives of the Intel Corporation, the State of Arizona, local government, and members of the community. For nearly four years, the Clinton Administration has worked to reform our system of public health and environmental protection, to make it more protective and cost-effective than ever before. Today's agreement is one of the finest examples of our efforts to strengthen our system of environmental regulation. It is one of the most significant results of the Clinton Administration's efforts to build a new generation of environmental protection to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. This agreement with Intel is proof that we can make our environmental regulatory system as affordable as it is protective. Last November, President Clinton launched the cutting-edge program that we call Project XL -- for excellence and leadership. Working in partnership, business, cities, states, environmentalists, and community activists are designing ways not just to meet environmental requirements, not just to comply with environmental standards, but to go further, to exceed the bare minimum, to provide the strongest possible protections. I want to thank all of those who worked so hard to achieve today's agreement. Representatives of Intel, members of the community, environmentalists, state and local government sat down together and worked hard to do what is best for this community. We can all be proud of the results. Today's agreement has three basic elements. Number one, Intel will take specific steps to meet tough standards of superior environmental performance -- protecting the health of employees, the health of the community, and the health of our environment in the ways that work best for them. The company will limit air pollution through the use of cleaner manufacturing operations; reduce water use through recycling; protect groundwater by reducing stormwater runoff; and reduce waste through recycling. Number 2, Intel will gain the regulatory flexibility to continue to adapt its operations quickly and efficiently in a competitive and rapidly changing industry. Provided that stringent air pollution standards are met, Intel will receive a "one-stop," facility-wide permit -- instead of needing a permit for each manufacturing process -- and will be exempted from seeking new or modified permits for each change in the manufacturing process. Number 3, Intel will inform and involve the community through frequent and regular public meetings. That is how environmental decisions should be made. All those who must live with the results of environmental decisions -- the communities, the industries, the people -- must be active participants in making those decisions. They must be informed. They must be involved. This agreement promises to provide the people of Chandler with an unprecedented level of information and involvement in environmental decisionmaking. In place of the one-size-fits-all approach of the past, we are harnessing the creativity, the ingenuity, the innovation that have long been the strength of this nation. Rather than simply seeking the minimum, we are demanding superior environmental results -- from those who truly know this community and this company. The results promise to be good for the health of this community, good for the environment, and good for business. As President Clinton has said, our philosophy of reinvention is simple: "Protect people, not bureaucracy; promote results, not rules; get action, not rhetoric." Under the President's leadership, through the Clinton Administration's program of regulatory reinvention, we at EPA have eliminated more than 15 million hours of red tape. We completed more Superfund toxic waste cleanups in just three years than had been completed in the previous 12 years. We launched a program to clean up the brownfields -- the abandoned and contaminated industrial sites -- that are a blight on our cities. Through our Common Sense Initiative and our Environmental Leadership Program, we challenge companies to take innovative approaches to controlling pollution. We expanded the public's Right to Know about toxic pollution in their communities, set new standards to cut toxic air pollution by 2.5 million tons per year and tightened standards for incinerator emissions. We're opening small business compliance assistance centers to provide small business owners with precise, easy to use information on how best to comply with environmental laws -- and we're providing incentives to encourage small businesses to come forward and fix environmental problems. All of these reforms are reaping benefits for business, strengthening environmental protection, and achieving real results for communities across the country. President Clinton has always believed that environmental protection and a growing economy can and must go hand in hand. We do not need to choose between our jobs and our health. Chandler, Arizona, can be an example of how a healthy economy begets a healthier environment; a healthy environment -- a stronger economy. Today's agreement shows that together, we can take the common-sense, cost-effective steps we need to protect our health, our communities, our economy, and pass on a safe, healthy world to our children. |
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