Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 16, 1994 TAG: 9405160099
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: David M. Poole
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
But environmental groups wonder just how balanced the strike force can be when it is stacked with executives from some of the state's largest corporations.
The six-member Natural Resources Committee includes representatives from paper, waste management and coal companies that have a direct interest in undoing environmental regulations and instituting a "customer-friendly" permitting process.
Allen appointed no representatives of environmental groups to the committee.
"There is evidence," the Virginia Environmental Network said in a recent alert to its member organizations, "that the strike force's efforts will serve as a tool for industry to dismantle agencies and essential environmental protection."
Robert T. Lee, a Washington attorney who is chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said those concerns are unfounded.
He said environmental groups will have input at public hearings that will be held before the strike force presents its final recommendations to Allen by the end of the year.
"We're not going to do something that is environmentally irresponsible," Lee said. "You can't do that."
Lee represents corporate clients with environmental problems. In the fall campaign, he wrote a position paper for Allen in which he argued that government should not force individuals and business to control nonpoint sources of pollution such as car exhaust, storm water, farm pesticide and runoff.
"We felt - and we think the governor feels - that you can't coerce people into doing these things. You have to motivate them with incentives."
Other committee members are: Charles W. Jarvis, vice president of RUST International Corp., a waste management firm in Northern Virginia; Horace P. Faber Jr., chief executive officer of Halifax Paper Board Co. in Richmond; Tommy Hudson, president of the Virginia Coal Association; Paul A. Dresser, chief operating officer of Chesapeake Corp., a paper products company based in Richmond; and William "Skip" Forrest Jr., a Richmond attorney.
Allen has empowered the group to scrutinize existing state environmental agencies for areas of duplication and regulations that are not required by federal law.
Allen has vowed to eliminate those regulations found to be "unnecessary, costly or burdensome."
Environmentalists are concerned that the Allen administration appears to consider any regulation that exceeds federal minimums to be a candidate for elimination. Some key regulations - including limits on discharges of the insecticide Kepone into the James River, and much of the Chesapeake Bay Act - are state initiatives.
"We don't think you can `Save the Bay' with federal minimums," said Roy Hoagland, assistant director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Patti Jackson, executive director of the Lower James River Association, said she hoped committee members will consider why several agencies share oversight on a particular area, such as storm-water management.
"There may be room for change," she said, "but I'd hate to see some changes that have drastic effects down the road in the name of short-term gain.
"Frankly, some of the people on the committee have a very direct interest in the undoing of these programs."
One member, Dresser of the Chesapeake Corp., said he had removed himself from review of the Department of Environmental Quality to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
"I'm not in this for personal gain or for my company," he said. "I'm in this as a citizen . . . to help state government change and improve."
Dresser said his chief interest is seeing that government conforms to a corporate model that cuts out layers of management and narrows the gap between "customer" and "decision maker."
Dresser asked environmental groups not to rush judgment before the committee has a chance to make recommendations.
"I doubt there is anyone in industry that would do something to disturb the environment," he said. "I'm an environmentalist. Everyone who works for this company is an environmentalist."
by CNB