ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240063
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
WHEN THE governor takes implicit credit for giving ordinary Virginians the right to fight pollution permits, he is engaging in political spin so wild that it stands the truth on its head.
Gov. George Allen lost his argument in the U.S. Supreme Court. The state had disputed the federal Environmental Protection Agency's authority to demand that Virginia let citizens challenge air-pollution permits.
The expense of fighting this lost cause was worth it, the governor maintained, because "it is important to probe the limits of our freedom as Virginians." He was referring, of course, to state's rights. But the right the state was trying so tenaciously to protect was its right to deny citizens access to the courts.
Voters, though, might think the governor had been fighting for their day in court, were they to judge solely by his comments after this week's ruling. Allen announced that the state now can change its pollution permitting system "in accordance with an amendment I proposed last year. ...
"I signed legislation which accomplished the goal of expanding Virginia's laws pertaining to citizen standing to challenge state decisions on air, water and waste permits."
But only, he failed to add, after he insisted that lawmakers include language that Virginia would not make the change unless the Supreme Court essentially forced it to by ruling in favor of the EPA.
With such environmental heroics to his credit, is it any wonder that Democrats in the General Assembly are looking hard at the governor's appointee for director of Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality?
Thomas Hopkins came before an (unfortunately) all-Democratic House subcommittee to respond to a recent study critical of DEQ's enforcement record during the Allen administration. Hopkins' comments - including a complaint that the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report ignored DEQ accomplishments - failed to address the allegations against the agency. Virginians need a credible, point-by-point response.
With the race for Allen's successor starting to take shape, and polls showing wide support among Virginians for environmental protection, the Republican administration would love to repackage itself in green. So far, there has been more spin than turnaround on environmental policy.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB