Several members of the E&EM family were involved in the 2001 Environmental Summit sponsored by the National Environmental Policy Institute (NEPI) during the period March 7-9, 2001, and in the NEPI’s National Contaminated Sediments Dialogue symposium, held at the National Press Club on November 1, 2001. The theme of this year’s Environmental Summit was “Democratizing Environmental Policy: Moving State and Local Priorities into Washington.” The Summit was led by the Honorable Don Ritter, a former seven-term Congressman from Pennsylvania who has lectured in the E&EM program on several occasions.
This year’s summit featured some of the nation’s most highly recognized environmental officials. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Todd Whitman, discussed her priorities for the EPA in the next four years. Reflecting on her years as Governor or New Jersey, Ms. Whitman emphasized her interest in expanding the brownfields redevelopment program in which several E&EM students have been extensively involved over the past three years by virtue of a grant awarded to GW by the EPA.
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, who worked with E&EM lead professor Jonathan Deason more than a decade ago, described the trials and tribulations of her recent Senate confirmation process, as well as her goals for the new Administration. Secretary Norton is the first female Secretary in the 151-year history of the Department.
Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, current chairman of the National Governors Association, provided the Summit with a compelling rationale for his nationally recognized program to control urban sprawl in Maryland. Many of Governor Glendening's concepts have been confirmed by findings of research investigations conducted in the E&EM program.
Other nationally recognized environmental speakers at the event included Congressman Billy Tauzin, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Congressman Jim Moran of Northern Virginia, Florida Secretary of Environmental Protection David Struhs, Colorado Congressman Mark Udall, Michigan Congressman Peter Hoekstra, and New York Congressman Jim Walsh.
Professor Deason recently has been working with a group called the NEPI Contaminated Sediments Dialogue, which sponsored a panel at the Summit entitled “Contaminated Sediments: Science, Citizens and Cleanup Decisions.” Overall, more than 300 leading environmental managers from across the United States participated in the Summit.