will read the recommendation with the two
words "and environment", you will have
the recommendation as we originally con-
templated it. At the request of Delegate
Singer, the words "and environment" were
added. This passed in our Committee by
a 6 to 5 vote; so the words "and environ-
ment" were included. That is the history
of it.
DELEGATE BYRNES: Do 1 interpret
this correctly—that you do intend to cover
air and water pollution by this particular
mandate to the legislature?
DELEGATE BOYER: Yes. It is our in-
tention as stated in the commentary that
we want the broadest possible interpreta-
tion. May 1 call to your attention page 2
of the commentary which began with the
sentence at the bottom of page 1, expressing
our intention to give the broadest possible
interpretation to the phrase "natural re-
sources and environment, and scenic
beauty." This would include the abatement
and prevention of air and water pollution,
which would fall into this category.
DELEGATE BYRNES: Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any other
questions? Delegate Schneider.
DELEGATE SCHNEIDER: I would like
to ask, I know some of the recent constitu-
tions that have been enacted have contained
provisions similar to this. Does your Com-
mittee know of any provisions in constitu-
tions which have been around a bit longer
and perhaps tested, and if so, what effect
such a conservation provision has had, if
any?
DELEGATE BOYER: Yes. There are
other constitutions—Michigan, New York,
which had the ill-fated worded constitution.
DELEGATE JAMES: Hawaii.
DELEGATE BOYER: Hawaii. Other
states have adopted in their constitutions
provisions relating to forest reserves, and
some of them go into great length. It is
difficult to know when you get started
where to stop, and the Committee was
afraid that by inclusion, we might have
later court interpretation that we meant to
exclude those items that we neglected to
include. We thought that we could best
serve the public interest by making a broad
policy statement and in our commentary,
trying to spell out that the phrase did in-
clude the broadest possible interpretation
and by so doing avoid the pitfall that other
state constitutions have fallen into by ram-
bling on for three or four pages. |
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Schneider.
DELEGATE SCHNEIDER: Do you
have any indication that these have had
any effectiveness whatsoever in these
states? In other words, do you have any
cases where the legislature has been told to
act or not to act because the constitution
says that we should preserve natural re-
sources and scenic beauty?
DELEGATE BOYER: No, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Mr. Chairman,
you do intend, do you not, that the words
"and environment" be considered in con-
junction with natural resources only, do
you not?
DELEGATE BOYER: Yes, sir.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: And you do
not take us off into the area of social en-
vironment or slum area or anything of
that kind?
DELEGATE BOYER: No, and I am
glad you brought that up, Delegate Clagett;
our intention was to cover natural re-
sources and natural environment, not so-
cial or physical, manmade environment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: Delegate Boyer,
I have two questions: One, would the exist-
ence of this language in the constitution
preclude local governments in the State
from taking action to conserve environ-
mental resources?
DELEGATE BOYER: I would think
not. It seems to be the trend apparently of
this Convention to give broader powers to
local government. We will learn more about
that as the local government report is made
but it is certainly not our intention to de-
prive local governments from protecting
their own resources, if they have the au-
thority under local government provisions
to do so.
DELEGATE HANSON: And so long as
this is not inconsistent with state law.
DELEGATE BOYER: That is right.
DELEGATE HANSON: The second
question is, would not the language which
you have here make it clear that such acts
as might provide historic trusts or pro-
vide for the preservation of sites of natural
beauty, et cetera, would be constitutional?
DELEGATE BOYER: We strongly con-
sidered the inclusion of historical sites, and |
