One
of the dumbest policies imaginable is that government environmental regulation
is an unnecessary luxury that stifles business growth and kills job
opportunities. Tell that to the denizens of Beijing who know that their city
has a skyline, but they not only cannot see it, they are dying from breathing
the toxic air that blocks their view. I guess it is better to have a job than
to be healthy. You may not live that long, and your children may be described
as “sickly,” but at least you are working and there are corporate shareholders
with smiles on their faces.
There
was a time when North Carolina was proud of its Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) and the enforcement efforts that kept natural
waterways clean and air very breathable. But there was a new storm surge in
2011, when Tea Party-inspired GOP officials took over the legislature and
installed a brand, spanking new conservative governor. This right wing surge
campaigned heavily on cutting “job-killing” regulation, particularly rules that
were environmentally focused. What’s more, Gov. Pat McCrory (former Charlotte
mayor) spent 28 years working for Duke Energy, a power company with a checkered
track record of environmental compliance.
The
new patois in the State Capitol in Raleigh turned the DENR into a customer
service wing of government, and the new customers were… big business seeking
permits for whatever businesses activities they wanted to build or expand. Not
all of the citizens of North Carolina, just business. DENR civil servants were
told that their mandate was to expedite and minimize the restrictions from the
permitting process. Their job was focused now on getting out of the way and to
stop looking at possible environmental consequences to business expansion. DENR
regulators apparently didn’t believe the message.
“‘The
General Assembly doesn’t like you,’ an official in the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources told supervisors called to a drab meeting
room here. ‘They cut your budget, but you didn’t get the message. And they cut
your budget again, and you still didn’t get the message.’… From now on,
regulators were told, they must focus on customer service, meaning issuing
environmental permits for businesses as quickly as possible. Big changes are
coming, the official said, according to three people in the meeting, two of
whom took notes. ‘If you don’t like change, you’ll be gone.’…
“Last
year, the environment agency’s budget for water pollution programs was cut by
10.2 percent, a bipartisan commission that approves regulations was reorganized
to include only Republican appointees, and the governor vastly expanded the
number of agency employees exempt from civil service protections, to 179 from
24.
“The
effect, said midlevel supervisors who now serve at the pleasure of the
governor, is that they are hesitant to crack down on polluters who might
complain to [McCrory-appointee, state environmental secretary, John E. Skvarla
III] or a lawmaker, at the risk of their jobs. Several spoke anonymously out of
fear of being fired.” New York Times, February 28th.
Enter
Duke Energy, and the matter of their big spill – 39,000 tons of toxic coal ash
(the third largest such spill in history) – into North Carolina’s Dan River in
early February. “The spill, which coated the river bottom 70 miles downstream
and threatened drinking water and aquatic life, drew attention to a deal that
the environmental department’s new leadership reached with Duke last year over
pollution from coal ash ponds. It included a minimal fine but no order that
Duke remove the ash — the waste from burning coal to generate electricity —
from its leaky, unlined ponds. Environmental groups said the arrangement
protected a powerful utility rather than the environment or the public…
“Federal
prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation into the spill and the
relations between Duke and regulators at the environmental agency.” NY Times.
You mean that same Duke Energy where the Governor had been employed almost
three decades? But didn’t the voters actually sanctify this level of corruption
in the 2011 election? Didn’t they actually demand this result?
One
of the most obvious realities in a world of competitive edge: no business can
increase their production costs to implement environmental protections when
their competitors are not equally forced to do the same. Environmental
regulation can, therefore, almost never be a matter of voluntary compliance
unless every competitor is saddled with an equal burden. No corporate executive
can survive by making his company less competitive. And for those who believe
that environment regulations are stupid, let’s let their children breathe that
polluted air and drink toxic water and see how they feel about it. Who cares?
You should!
I’m Peter Dekom,
and breathing clean air and drinking potable water seem to be pretty sacred
resources that we all need to respect and cherish.
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