E X E C U T I V E O F F I C E O F T H E P R E S I D E N T

                             THE WHITE HOUSE
                      OFFICE OF THE PRESS SECRETARY

          WHITE HOUSE OFFICE TO COORDINATE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
      President Designs New Office to Streamline, Strengthen Policy
            FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY, GLOBAL ISSUES 

        WASHINGTON -- Streamlining and improving the Administration's

ability to coordinate and craft environmental policy, President Clinton today (2/8) announced the creation of the White House Office on Environmental Policy and reinforced his intention to elevate the Environmental Protection Agency to the cabinet.

"We face urgent environmental and economic challenges that demand a new way of thinking and a new way of organizing our efforts," President Clinton said. "This office represents in action our commitment to confront these challenges in a new, more effective way, recognizing the connection between environmental protection and economic growth and our responsibility to provide real leadership on global environmental issues."

President Clinton said he is working with Congress to pass legislation that will elevate the EPA to the cabinet, further reinforcing his Administration's commitment to real changes in environmental policy.

"We must move in a new direction, to recognize that protecting the environment means strengthening our economy, and creating jobs. And, we must be ready to take advantage of the enormous business opportunities that exist both here and around the world for new environmental technologies that protect the environment and increase profits," the President said.

"The days of photo-op environmentalism are over. The Competitiveness Council is closed and so is the back door the polluters used to use to get out from under our laws," he said.

"This office represents our commitment to the environment and to a new, more efficient and effective way to craft policies that work -- policies that recognize protecting our environment means strengthening our economy; policies that recognize global environmental problems that have too long been relegated to the bottom of the agenda; policies that renew for the American people a genuine commitment to their health, their safety, and their jobs," President Clinton said.

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Office on Environmental Policy/Page 2
February 8, 1993

The White House Office on Environmental Policy will be responsible for coordinating environmental policy within the federal government. The Director of the White House Office on Environmental Policy will participate in each of the major policy councils: the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, and the Domestic Policy Council and work closely with the relevant federal agencies.

"The American people understand how important it is to at the same time work to protect the environment and grow our economy. And, they have been waiting too long for leadership that will confront the global ecological crisis we face," said Vice President Gore. "That work demands a coordinated, focused effort all across the government."

The Office replaces the Council on Environmental Quality, expanding the influence of the Council with a more efficient and effectively focused mandate to coordinate and influence environmental policy. The Office will retain some of the responsibilities of the CQ, while others will be returned more appropriately and effectively to the relevant federal agencies, creating at the White House a more effective means of focusing on policy making and development.

President Clinton today (2/8) named Kathleen McGinty as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office on Environmental Policy. McGinty, 29, a lawyer who has served as Vice President Gore's senior environmental advisor since 1990, first joined Gore's Senate staff in 1989 as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School in New York City where she earned a JD, and St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia where she earned a BS in Chemistry. She has broad experience on a range of environmental issues and served as the Senate's top staff advisor for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil. She also served as an official member of the U.S. delegation to the Antarctica Environmental Protocol Treaty negotiations.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

OFFICE ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The White House Office on Environmental Policy represents a bold, new effort to streamline and strengthen environmental policymaking, providing President Clinton and Vice President Gore a powerful and effective means to bring their commitment to environmental protection and economic growth to the American people.

The Office on Environmental Policy will be responsible for coordinating environmental policy within the federal government, allowing the Clinton-Gore Administration to provide real leadership on critical global environmental concerns such as climate change and ozone depletion.

The Office on Environmental Policy represents in action key elements of the Administration's environmental policy goals: integrating environmental and economic issues, recognizing that environmental protection and economic growth are related; providing leadership on global environmental issues that demand a new, international perspective; fairly enforcing existing laws and protections without special favor for narrow interests; and renewing for the American people a genuine commitment to the environment and their health and safety.

The Office will be led by the Deputy Assistant to the President, Director of the White House Office on Environmental Policy who will participate in each of the major policy councils: the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, and the Domestic Policy Council and will work closely with the relevant federal agencies on environmental policy.

The Office replaces the Council on Environmental Quality, expanding the influence of the Council with a more efficient and effectively focused mandate to coordinate and influence environmental policy. The Office will retain some of the responsibilities of the CEQ, while others will be returned more appropriately and effectively to the relevant federal agencies, creating at The White House a more effective means of focusing on policy making and development.

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