My top environmental priority – and my top overall legislative priority – this session is to defeat the effort to dismantle Virginia’s citizen environmental boards. Gutting the authority of these boards would be perhaps the most significant and harmful transformation in our state’s environmental policy in a generation. The good news is that weeks of diligent lobbying and negotiations are finally moving things in the right direction.
The Air Pollution Control Board, Water Control Board, and Waste Management Board are composed of scientific and regulatory experts appointed by the Governor to oversee the environmental permitting process and to ensure that citizens have a voice in sensitive environmental permitting decisions that will affect them. This has worked in our community’s favor, as the Air Pollution Control Board has been a backstop against the Mirant Corporation’s efforts to win permits to increase the harmful pollutants they pump into the air we breathe.
Bills before both the House and the Senate would take away permitting authority from the citizen environmental boards and consolidate it in the hands of the administrator of the Department of Environmental Quality, making that individual a politically-appointed environmental permitting czar. Not only would this derail the progress our community has made on the Mirant issue through the Air Pollution Control Board, but it would significantly weaken environmental oversight and accountability throughout Virginia.
When the Natural Resources Subcommittee heard the House version of the legislation on Jan. 30, members expressed deep concern over the details of the legislation and the imbalance it would create. They voted six to one to table the bill, but left the door open for interested parties to continue to negotiate.
While killing the legislation outright would produce a short-term win for the environment, I have come to believe that the best outcome for securing a long-term victory would be to allow proponents of the bill to salvage something as long as it does not in any way diminish or disrupt the authority or independence of the boards. This would protect the current process while making future attacks on the process less likely. It is far too early to declare victory, but thanks to the efforts of a bipartisan coalition of citizens and legislators from across Virginia, I am increasingly hopeful that our community will be happy with the end result.
For updates on this and other aspects of my legislative agenda, please visit www.DavidEnglin.org. Of course, you can always contact me at DelDEnglin@house.state.va.us or 703-549-3203 to share your thoughts or if I can ever be of service. Thank you for allowing me to fight for our community in Richmond.
