Posted under Chesapeake Bay
Yesterday, the EPA released a preliminary report outlining a new federal effort to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The Washington Post highlights the key change in the EPA’s approach:
In the fight against such problems, the EPA now serves as a kind of shepherd — prodding and cajoling a group of state and federal agencies that are charged with forcing or nudging ground-level polluters to make changes. If a state misses its pollution goals, nothing happens.
Now, the EPA said, it wants to function as a taskmaster. States will be given a certain amount of pollution to reduce and will have two years to submit a plan for doing so. If they don’t make a plan, or if the plan isn’t good enough, the EPA can cut their federal grants or reject permits for new shopping malls, sewage plants or suburban developments.
EPA officials said they have had this power for years but have not used it in this way. Doing so will be politically difficult — the federal government, and the state officials who have to cut pollution at individual farms and sewage plants, are both likely to face heavy lobbying…
Howard Ernst, a political science professor at the Naval Academy who studies Chesapeake Bay politics, highlights the challenge:
“The powers have been sitting on the books for a generation. Why weren’t they enforced for a generation? Because powerful interests have worked to keep them not enforced. And those interests haven’t gone away.”
I’m running for State Delegate to stand up to the powerful interests and help restore the Bay to health.
You can read the full EPA report here.
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