Editors' Summary: As environmental regulations and litigation grow in complexity, the debate surrounding pollution control issues becomes more technical and specialized. As a result, the fundamental questions and assumptions that underlie pollution control problems sometimes go unarticulated. The author asserts that these underlying issues—such as how risk averse we should be, how we should weigh environmental protection and cost, who should be responsible for the cost of cleaning up pollution—should be brought into the open and explicitly addressed in broad public debate, especially on the occasion of an election year and new presidential administration. To take the first step in establishing a framework for this debate, the author sets forth what he sees as the two basic opposing positions in environmental policy: the "go-slow" approach to environmental regulation, and the "tough regulation" position.