Beggar Thy Neighbor

“There will be no action on acid rain while President Reagan is in office.” With that phrase of finality, a senior American official confirmed this week what U.S. environmentalists and Canadian politicians had suspected. The absence of action on acid rain during Reagan’s years in office so far will continue to leave American and Canadian forests, lakes and rivers vulnerable to airborne contaminants until he leaves.

It’s not as if the Reagan Administration hasn’t had the opportunity to provide leadership. Congress has tried for several years to pass measures to reduce the production of sulfides and nitrogen oxides that are carried hundreds of miles away and then contribute to the deaths of trees and fish when they fall in rain or snow. But the President still is not persuaded that there is a link between coal-burning industries, such as power plants, and pollution across state and national borders; and without a word from the White House, legislation cannot move.

In January Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney proposed a program that could cut American emissions in half by 1994, but Reagan wanted more study. Mulroney repeated his suggestion during his visit to Washington this week, to no avail.

Recent studies show damage from acid rain spreading south down the U.S. Atlantic coast, now affecting even the Chesapeake Bay. How long the nation has to respond to the threat nobody knows. What is known is that neither this President nor the next can say that nobody warned him.