I would like to welcome everyone to the Sixteenth Annual Airlie House Conference on the Environment. Our topic this year—"Burdens of Environmental Regulation on Private Property Ownership and Business Transactions: Reasonable or Unreasonable?"—is one of particular timeliness or, as some in this audience would say, urgency. It is a topic that cuts across many traditional disciplines in the law and affects many different constituencies. In numerous past Airlie House Conferences, the Committee has observed that the topics involved subjects which will impact and touch almost every area of a lawyer's activity. This year's conference continues that tradition.

In recent years, state and federal environmental regulations have resulted in substantial new liabilities confronting real estate ownership and transfer, and corporate acquisitions, financing and corporate structure. Bankruptcy law, the cleanup of hazardous waste sites, and secured creditors' rights have come into increasing conflict.