[pf] Whitman for EPA, Prec Principle

by David A

21 December 2000 14:13 UTC

>From today's NY Times:
"Republicans close to the Bush campaign said that the president-elect 
was close to naming several fellow Republican governors to cabinet 
posts, perhaps on Friday. Christie Whitman, the moderate governor of New 
Jersey, would be named to head the Environmental Protection Agency, the 
officials said."
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/politics/21BUSH.html

As I noted in my Scientific American article, 
http://www.sciam.com/2001/0101issue/0101scicit1.html, Christine Todd 
Whitman advocated the precautionary principle in an October speech at a 
National Academy of Sciences speech:

"...policymakers need to take a precautionary approach to environmental 
protection.... We must acknowledge that uncertainty is inherent in 
managing natural resources, recognize it is usually easier to prevent 
environmental damage than to repair it later, and shift the burden of 
proof away from those advocating protection toward those proposing an 
action that may be harmful." 

As far as I know she's the highest elected official in the US to openly 
do so.

David