STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 © (415) 821-1200

 

 

STANFORD Unfiverstry “2 MEDICINE July 24, 1973
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fe t va .\ < Mr. E.W. Littlefield
~ cy “ Chairman of the Board
EP Utah International Inc.
2 ~ 550 California Street
7 San Francisco, California 94104

Dear Mr. Littlefield,

Thank you for your letter of July lith. I have only just
returned from a trip abroad and welcome an opportunity to reply to it.

I should start by stating that I am by no means committed to the
particular policy positions that NRDC has undertaken in the litigation
of a number of environmental questions. I am committed to an orlerly
process of the presentation of diverse points of views in a framework
that will permit their orderly adjudication after a fair hearing in
accordance with existing law. Few groups have been as effective as
NRDC in bringing such questions to judicial attention and thereby
helping to further the purposes of public law in a democracy. The need
to establish such mechanisms of orderly confontration, in a realistic
way that may help to balance the historical preponderance of established
interests in the exploitation of natural resources is an aim that has
overridden my occasional uneasiness about the particular positions
advocated by the staff and fellow members of the board of NRDC.

I would also say that Dr. Dubos' language is certainly more
picturesque than I could visualize using myself. I also have to say
that Dr. Dubos has undoubtedly been infinitely more effective in
conveying some very important messages to the public consciousness __
than I have ever been able to do.

AMALLIT

I do not believe that NRDC advocates the total abolition of strip
mining; although the third paragraph of Dr. Dubos' letter may well be read
to convey such an intention. I would also agree that Dr. Dubos has not
attempted to analyze the benefit side of the utilization of mineral
resources by this technique. Personally I am deeply sympathetic with the
dilemma, if one could even call it that, posed by your remarks about
mining in New Mexico. g,

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Your penultimate paragraph suggests that we really do not have
different objectives, namely "proper and wise regulation". and I do
not believe that the adjudication of the cases which are being pursued
by NRDC can possibly have any other consequence than the establishment
of such regulatory control. Do you believe that NRDC should be discouraged
from the presentation of its case before the courts for adjudication

LT. J. ®. KENNEDY, JR. LABORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY HEREDITY NEUROBIOLOGY DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE
Mr. E.W. Littlefield -2-- 7/24/73

with respect to the very issues of the environmental costs and human
benefits that are indeed a matter of mutual concern? The real work

of NRDC is in the preparation and prosecution of these cases, under law,
and for that reason, and in the belief that you share our commitments to
the ventilation of such issues, I would have no hesitation in asking you
to continue to contribute to the council.

To turn however to Dr. Dubos' letter, I can certainly understand your
sense of grievance about its rhetoric and in particular that it does not
attempt to present the other side of the case —-- obviously there are plenty
of resources available for that option and I have little fear that the
public will be kept totally unaware of those benefit considerations.

Nevertheless, I believe that NRDC should endeavor to undertake a
larger role in public education that might well include the illumination
of both sides of such controversies. There are both financial and conceptual
impediments to doing this -- for there can be no substitute for its role
as advocate in litigatory proceedings -- but this will continue to be the
thrust of my own counsel to the board.

Nevertheless, in the interests of fairness I intend to propose that
NRDC agree to distribute copies of any rebuttal statement that you might
wish to prepare, to the same mailing as Dr. Dubos' original letter; we
hope you will understand if we request that you then bear the expense*of
that particular mailing. Elsewhere I have advocated that public interest
groups be legally permitted to find some way to earn "profits" to the
extent that they can win their point in court —~ a system that might re-
dress the present asymmetry of resources. I think you might sympathize with
the free enterpise flavor of the competition among such groups that this
system could promote. However, we do not yet live in such a utopian world
and this leads me to make the rather awkward suggestion that I have just
indicated.

Sincerely yours,’

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

JL/rr
cc: John Adams, NRDC, New York

* or perhaps prorated if enclosed with other NRDC material