MARCH 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 3
THE LAWRENCE SUMMERS MEMORIAL AWARD
The first Lawrence Summers Memorial Award* goes to a number of
industry lobbyists working to oppose new clean air regulations. Here are the
comments which earned them this prestigious prize:
"The effects of ozone are not that serious. I hate to say that," said an
automobile manufacturers association spokesman. "But what we're talking about
is a temporary loss in lung function of 20 to 30 percent. That's not really a
health effect." (Quoted in Al Kamen, "Lost in the Ozone," Washington Post,
February 3, 1997.)
"People can protect themselves" from the health effects of ozone, an oil
industry lobbyist told the National Journal. "They can avoid jogging. Asthmatic
kids need not go out and ride their bicycles." (Quoted in Al Kamen, "Lost in
the Ozone," Washington Post, February 3, 1997.)
Former Bush White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, appearing on MSNBC, said
that if -- after further study -- air pollution is proven to cause health
problems, then "if the problem is to be rectified, it's more easily rectified
by getting poor people better air conditioning in the summertime. The way to
solve that [the pollution problem] is not by raising their utility bills," he
said. (Quoted in Al Kamen, "Strip Tease," Washington Post, February 17,
1997.)
* In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist and current Deputy
Secretary of Treasury Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and
dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you
and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty
industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" Summers wrote. "I think
the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage
country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought
that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air
quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico
City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic.
