Delaware's Choice

Despite powerful opposition, Delaware has chosen conservation over industrial growth. Last week Governor Russell W. Peterson signed a law that stops heavy industry from locating new plants on the state's 125-mile-long ocean, bay and river coastline. The law, first of its kind in the U.S., specifically bans oil refineries, petrochemical complexes, steel mills, offshore bulk-transfer terminals and paper mills--all potential polluters. "Clean" industries (such as jewelry manufacturing and research labs) may settle on Delaware's shoreline, but only after the state planner and a new ten-man control board approve applicants' plans.

"We're keenly disappointed," said an official at Shell Oil, which had proposed a $100 million littoral refinery. "We're particularly sorry to see that emotionalism was permitted to obscure the fact that we are capable of building a clean refinery." But Peterson, himself a former Du Pont executive, has become convinced that performance controls "are not an effective enough safeguard" against pollution; he especially fears for the state's handsome beaches which now support a thriving tourist business. Besides, the Governor warned, a massive influx of industrial workers "could build population pressure that would create more problems than it would solve."

The new law promises to harm what the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments call the nation's "trading posture." On the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, except for some Maine ports, only Delaware Bay has deep enough water to handle the world's growing fleets of supertankers and giant cargo ships. But in a recent letter to a complaining industrialist, Peterson bluntly suggested that there was a somewhat less economic alternative: "Forgo the use of large vessels and continue to use smaller vessels."

Despite the loss of potential jobs and tax revenue that more heavy industry would bring in, Delaware will probably not suffer much from the ban. The state has long attracted industry with its favorable corporation laws and its lack of a sales tax; now it also virtually guarantees a pleasant quality of life. As a result, Delaware may actually entice more corporate headquarters and light industry than ever before. Sums up Governor Peterson: "We can afford to be selective."

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