(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Clinton Administration has yet to assuage business's fear that Vice President Al Gore -- author of Earth in the Balance -- will lead a regulation- laden charge to toughen environmental laws. On the negative side (as far as business is concerned), President Clinton quickly abolished the Council on Competitiveness, which in the Bush Administration had the brief of bashing onerous regulations. On the plus side, the Administration has hewn to rhetoric about easing hostility between the Greens and business. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner proposes to revise laws, as they come up for renewal, to make them less cumbersome and more reasonable. For instance, she seems willing to focus the Superfund program on cleaning up the most hazardous chemical waste sites, not marginal ones. The Clintonites also want to spend $446 million over five years on recycling and other clean technology to supplement regulation. Likewise, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt wants industry and environmentalists to work together on protecting endangered species before situations develop into what he calls train wrecks. (For one such crash, see following story.)