In a Kennedy School panel yesterday, four current and past administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that the public is willing to pay for environmental protection.

The topic of the Institute of Politics discussion was "Environmental Protection: Is the Public Willing to Pay?"

Carol Browner, the administrator of the EPA since 1993, said "the public is still deeply concerned about the environment."

"It's clear that the people want us to protect the air, the water, the land, and their children," Browner said. "I believe they are willing to pay for it if they feel they are party to the decision."

Browner said she wants to "de-adversarialize" the dialogue between the business sector and environmentalists.

Former EPA administrators Doug Costle, William Reilly, and William Ruckelshaus also spoke on the panel.

All three former administrators expressed concern over the future of environmental issues in the new Republican-controlled Congress.

"There is a specter hanging over this discussion, and that specter is Newt Gingrich," Reilly said, referring to the conservative Speaker of the House-elect.

But Ruckelshaus said that the new Congress does not threaten the purpose of the EPA.

"We need not fear the new era," Ruckelshaus said, "because we have laid the foundation for far more cost-effective methods of maintaining health and environmental standards."

Costle said that the key to continuing the success of the EPA is to "invest in industrial technologies that are more efficient."

"The challenge for the future is to develop new tools," Costle said.

The panel discussion was moderated by Kennedy School Associate Professor of Public Policy Robert N. Stavins. It was co-sponsored by the Environmental and Natural Resources Program of the Center for International Affairs of the Kennedy School.