Number: 1975-03
WHEREAS, the Nation’s mounting dual economic crisis of inflation and recession is stimulating critical review of Federal, state, and local expenditures for pollution controls and environmental protection; and
WHEREAS, studies contracted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality have found that current environmental expenditures cause an annual inflation rate of about 0.3 percent and the inflation rate caused by pollution controls for the period 1973-82 will be only about 0.2 percent; and
WHEREAS, the costs of implementing pollution controls increase with each year of delay; and
WHEREAS, investments in pollution control facilities stimulate new markets and employment opportunities; and
WHEREAS, pollution represents the inefficient and wasteful use of limited natural resources, itself an inflationary process; and
WHEREAS, the annual damage caused by air and water pollution is estimated to cost the Nation more than $24 billion; and
WHEREAS, damage caused by pollution also extends to human fatalities, impairment of public health, and losses of irreplaceable resources;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in annual convention assembled March 14-16, 1975, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, hereby expresses the belief that the most expeditious abatement of pollution and environmental degradation is essential to the well-being of the Nation and its economy; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that any curtailment of pollution abatement programs must be preceded by a thorough investigation of the benefits of continuing pollution as well as the costs.