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TODAY Thursday 31 July 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: DC Blues

Absent a declaration of war, bipartisan happiness can induce deep unease. It was unsettling to see President Clinton and the Democrats celebrating the budget-and-tax deal in the Rose Garden and then see Speaker Gingrich and Senator Lott celebrating the same deal in the Capitol. The mega-fix is in.

This isn't the place to talk about tax policy as an instrument for social equity (though our telephone operators are standing by), and it would be impolite to remind politicians and reporters that about a year ago they were all in a tizzy about "tax simplification" (this new law will serve as a public works program for bright young accountants), so we'll limit our comments to the environmental portions of the tax deal.

There are none.

And that's your story. There is a gulf as wide as the Missouri between the importance attached to tax policy by enviro analysts and the degree of political heft that enviros bring to the tax debates. We just didn't make much of a dent on the tax side of this tax-and-allocation deal, and instead exercised our muscles on behalf of assuring reasonable spending authorizations for departments and bureaus that deal with public lands and environmental health. If the environmental consequences of any of the new tax provisions were ever discussed, I saw no evidence. If any Senator or Member of Congress proposed a new section of the Code designed to alleviate environmental stress, it went unnoticed.

What will be the unintended environmental consequences of the tax revisions? Hard to say right now (Bob Repetto at World Resources is probably working on the question as you read this), but it does seem pretty clear that there will be more disposable income at the demographic high end and that there will be an accelerated demand in the already-healthy market for owner-occupied housing. Non-food consumption in general will go up, and consumption of goods used to build and furnish houses (lumber, for example) will climb particularly. Incentives for new houses, coupled with stable oil prices and no new gasoline taxes, will promote sprawl and the sale of large sport/utility vehicles. In short, we can look for a continuation of current trends, and then some.

On the spending side, yesterday brought mixed-but-mostly-bad news. The Senate passed a transportation bill that was generous to all forms of mobility but rail. Bicyclists and pedestrians were assured their customary new slices of the pie, but the big winners were highways (up 21% over last year) and airports (up 16%). Poor Amtrak was voted the subsidy it shouldn't have -- $344 million for operating expenses -- and was denied the subsidy that it should have -- $2.3 billion for capital improvements. Here is the craziness: a federally-funded road for a private automobile is not a subsidy but a federally-funded track for a private train is. Taxes can build airports but they can't lay rail.

I'll admit that I'm out of sorts because my daughter turns 17 in April, before I'm able to claim the new $500 bounty that she would have fetched if her mother and I had just been a little more patient. And it's true that I feel remote from the satisfactions now felt by people who have capital gains on their houses and inheritances in excess of $600,000. But I do ride those sad Amtrak trains, and -- through erratic interests in the national polity -- wonder just how it is that the happy politicians of the Rose Garden and Capitol propose to tackle this conservation bother.

 

TODAY ON THE SITE:

Live from Lake Tahoe. Jon Christensen, who lives and works on the Nevada side of the watershed, tells you about the flying visit from Bill Clinton last weekend and how (with good intentions) the President seems to have painted a misleadingly pretty picture of how "grassroots" efforts are spawned and matured. Good stuff.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

7/30: Atlanta and Salina
7/29: Herons and Frogs
7/28: Golf
7/25: Climate Chess: Arkansan Opening
7/24: Top and Bottom
7/23: Smart Exxon
7/22: Climate Chess
7/21: Don't Know Much About Conservation
7/18: All Aboard
7/17: Downward and Outward Mobility

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