Legislative Watch: Action on GenX — or a Sham?
State legislative leaders have finally reached agreement on legislation to address the GenX pollution crisis — but analysts say it’s a sham.
Republicans in both chambers have simultaneously introduced identical companion bills—HB 972 and SB 724—which they claim would give the state the authority to shut down polluters discharging GenX, and appropriate several million dollars to deal with the issue.
There are just two main problems with their approach:
- The state already has the authority to shut down operations which violate its pollution control regulations. The new legislation would actually add additional conditions on the use of that existing authority, and call into question state agencies’ existing authority to act in other situations.
- The lion’s share of the new funding wouldn’t go toward enforcement, or even be touchable by any of the state agencies charged with enforcing the laws protecting public health and the environment. Instead, it would be routed to studies by the special “collaboratory” set up by legislative leaders and run by a former advisor to Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger. It’s an open secret that this supposed research entity was established as a way to ensure the production of research results more to the liking of Berger and his anti-environmental allies.
Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) attorney Derb Carter said of the bill’s enforcement authority provisions, “Rather than clarify or enhance state enforcement authority, this bill imposes multiple requirements on the Governor before he can order a facility that is potentially poisoning people to cease all polluting operations and activities—creating unnecessary hurdles to effective action. This is pointless given the Governor’s existing authority, and appears intended to protect the polluter, Chemours.”
He further criticized the bill’s appropriations, which send more than two-thirds of their funding to Berger’s “collaboratory.” Carter called that unproductive, and said instead, “Additional funding to abate the pollution should be directed to the Department of Environmental Quality, which has the authority to address the problem, and a demonstrated need for additional staff, equipment and funding.”
Up next, Opposition Legislators Propose Alternative GenX Bill >>
