As with all things Clinton, the smears against Bill Clinton regarding the East Liverpool toxic waste incinerator (which are then extended to Hillary) are based on innuendo and little else. The actual facts show this charge has even less substance than Whitewater or "travelgate."
According to the smear, Bill Clinton promised to close a toxic waste incinerator being opened by a company called WTI, but after the election, he greenlighted the project to please its owner, Jackson Stephens, who was purportedly a big backer of Clinton's campaign.
If this story seems straight out of Freeperville in the mid 90s, well, it is.
The truth is that Jackson Stephens didn't even own the plant in 1992-93, so it had no economic interest in influencing Clinton to approve it. The plant was approved by Bush and the Clinton EPA determined they couldn't undo that approval. Clinton changed the rules for incinerators going forward over the protests of the industry.
Obama supporters, stick to the truth. Your guy is winning fair and square, why recycle 15 year old freeper conspiracy theories?
The innuendo that Jackson Stephens got a permit approved by bribing Bill Clinton through donations is belied by the fact that Jackson Stephens didn't even own the plant in 1992-93:
Waste Technologies was founded in 1975 by Jackson T. Stephens, chairman of Stephens Inc., of Little Rock, one of the nation's largest investment banking companies. Officials at Stephens Inc. say the company sold its interests in Waste Technologies in 1990. The plant is now owned by Von Roll Ohio Inc., the American subsidiary of Von Roll A.G., a Swiss company.
July 1992 NYTimes
Before 1990, Jackson Stephens, Von Roll and other investors had a joint venture, incorporated as WTI, that planned on operating this plant. In 1990, Von Roll bought out its partners and became the sole owner. The fact that ownership changed in 1990 is confirmed by the fact that the Ohio attorney general sanctioned WTI for the ownership change, which should have been approved by Ohio regulators. These facts aren't in dispute, you can find them on the website of the opponents to the plant:
There were originally four investors in the facility. In 1990, the current owner — Von Roll America, Inc., a subsidiary of Swiss-based Von Roll AG —bought out the other partners, without properly informing the regulatory authorities or seeking the required permit modification. Subsequent questions about possibly deceptive changes in ownership led to a two-year investigation by Ohio's Attorney General at the time, Lee Fisher. In 1993 Fisher reported that "WTI's changes of ownership have resulted in unlawful installation and operation of the facility by the current owner, in violation of the three Ohio provisions of law which prohibit ownership and operation without a permit."
Ohio Citizen Action website
The fact is that Bill Clinton made good on his campaign promise. During the campaign, VP candidate Al Gore praised the activists opposing this plant and made this statement:
"It's important for the nation to learn from the struggle you're engaged in," Gore told residents then, adding: "A Clinton-Gore administration is going to give you an environmental presidency to deal with these problems. We'll be on your side for a change instead of the side of the garbage incinerators."
Again, this quotes comes from the activists' own website, so I think its the best one out there.
After the election, the Clinton EPA changed the rules for incinerators to adopt the activists' proposals:
The Administration's new program for hazardous waste incinerators includes these steps, most mentioned in the petition filed by Ms. Swearingen:
*Halting for 18 months approvals for new incinerators.
*Requiring the owners of 171 boilers and furnaces that burn the bulk of hazardous wastes to begin applying for permanent operating permits and to conduct scientific assessments of the potential risks their plants pose to health and the environment.
*Setting new allowable levels of the toxic chemical dioxin and heavy metals that hazardous waste incinerators can release into the atmosphere.
*Requiring incinerator operators and their customers to commit to sharply reduced volumes of hazardous wastes produced in the United States.
May 19, 1993 NY Times.
In fact, the first step Clinton did was to appoint Carol Browner as EPA chief, who was known as an outspoken opponent of incineration:
Mr. Clinton has named Carol M. Browner, the Secretary of Environmental Regulation in Florida, to head the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Ms. Browner is not only a former aide to Mr. Gore, but unsuccessfully lobbied for legislation that would have blocked any new incinerators in Florida.
NY Times December 1992
Browner later recused herself from the decision making over the East Liverpool plant because her husband was an activist opposing the plant.
In December 1992, Gore promised not to allow the plant to open. Importantly, this wasn't campaign pandering, this was after they won the election. But they couldn't get it done. While the Clinton/Gore EPA changed the rules going forward, they could not stop the East Liverpool plant itself because Bush had gotten the permits approved before leaving office. The NY Times from 1993 reports:
In March, Mr. Gore's aides said the Clinton Administration was legally unable to block the Ohio plant's opening because of a Bush Administration decision two months earlier to issue a permit to conduct trials of the incinerator.
May 19, 1993 NY Times.
This plant never would have opened had Clinton's EPA been in charge of the process from the start, but the plant was a done deal when they took office.