Congressional Republicans recently introduced a bill which would severely restrict environmental reviews of projects on our nation's rivers. For years and years, mostly Republican legislators, have been scapegoating requirements for discharge permits in water, environmental impact statements, and requirements for wetland or wildlife delineations. They assert that these "tapping on the brakes" cost developers way too much money and time (which is money).
Since we perform some of these reviews, it is somewhat of a conflict for us to comment, except to say most consultants work diligently for their client's interests and seek to find ways to make a project work without destroying the site or river or wildlife. Tapping on the brakes is a good thing, it helps everyone take a breath and think about the cumulative impacts as well as long term consequences of either doing the project or not. It's simply wrong to scapegoat these vital laws and seek to weaken them by claiming they cost jobs. But ideology has taken root with many of our policy makers and promises have been made to some industries to give them the store. Can we get an impact statement on that?
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AuthorKim often has a lot to say. Archives
August 2021
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