DATE: Thursday, July 24, 1997               TAG: 9707240004
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion

SOURCE: PATRICK LACKEY

                                            LENGTH:   84 lines

IN THE NEWS DON'T YOU WONDER SOMETIMES WHAT THEY WERE THINKING?

``What were they thinking?''

That was the Page One banner headline on March 28 after Heaven's Gate cultists killed themselves.

Many days, it seems, the same headline should run over half the news stories. ``What were they thinking?''

Last week, for example, state Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop requested that the federal government help cleanse Northern Virginia air of high ozone levels by having all but essential federal employees in Washington stay home, thus reducing commuter traffic. Federal offices should stay closed, she suggested, until the air cleared.

Figuring that Washington offices must be fairly important to the federal government, I wondered, ``What was she thinking?''

At a time when the federal Environmental Protection Agency accuses Virginia of lax enforcement of environmental laws and threatens to take over the issuance of Virginia environmental permits, the state Cabinet official responsible for protecting the state's natural resources requests that the federal government shut down most of its offices in Washington.

Was she joking or serious? Was she trying to give the feds a taste of their own medicine?

Under an Office of the Governor letterhead, Dunlop noted in a letter to Erskine Bowles, President Clinton's chief of staff, that ozone alerts had been issued for three days in a row in Northern Virginia.

``We believe,'' she wrote, ``this circumstance requires that the federal government demonstrate its commitment and leadership by closing for the day - as it would in a snow emergency - with only essential personnel reporting to work on Wednesday and for the duration of the `code red' conditions.''

The letter was faxed to Bowles on Tuesday evening, July 15, and it requested that the feds declare non-essential offices closed ``as soon as possible, but no later than 6:00 A.M. tomorrow. . . .''

Richmond, too, had had ``code red'' ozone alerts during the same period, but the governor never had state employees stay home. Why, then, should the federal government shut down at the request of a state official from a state that didn't close its own offices during an ozone alert?

Earlier this week I phoned Dunlop to ask the obvious question: ``What were you thinking?''

I assumed she was merely tweaking the federal government's nose, as the Allen administration is so fond of doing.

Or maybe Dunlop thought she had found a novel way to shrink the federal government. As an ardent conservative and rabid protector of private property, she wishes federal government were far smaller and less intrusive.

In our phone conversation, Dunlop denied that she was merely having fun at the expense of the U.S. government.

``I was serious about them closing the D.C. offices,'' she said. ``My interest is in improving the air quality in Northern Virginia.''

Immediately after faxing the letter to Bowles, Dunlop called the White House. She said she had a teleconference with senior people at the White House, Office of Personnel Management and the EPA. She said she explained that Virginia was looking for ways to relieve the traffic congestion that leads to high ozone levels in certain weather conditions.

She told me her request that federal offices close had nothing to do with the EPA threats against Virginia. ``It's always a shame,'' she said, ``when these things get mushed together. I don't operate that way.''

She denied that her request was intended to pressure the White House to reconsider imposing more stringent ozone standards, though she does question the validity of scientific studies cited in support of tougher air-quality standards.

Although state offices were never closed in Richmond and Northern Virginia, Dunlop said, an ozone alert was issued asking workers to postpone using gas-powered lawn equipment until after dusk and to avoid unnecessary car trips, excessive engine idling and the use of aerosols. Dunlop said state mowing along highways was discontinued during the period of high ozone levels.

Those are helpful steps, but I still wonder, ``What was she thinking?''

Conceivably some good could come of her request to the White House. She has since learned, she said, that the federal government could take lesser steps during the type of hot, muggy weather that contributes to high ozone levels. For example, she said, it might have announced that workers arriving late at their offices would not be penalized, so more people might rely on subways. Or it might have staggered downtown office hours, so traffic was spread out.

Perhaps some such steps could be implemented the next time ozone levels are expected to rise to unhealthy levels. Perhaps Dunlop provided a true service to residents of Northern Virginia.

And yet, I wonder, ``What was she really thinking?'' MEMO: Mr. Lackey is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.

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