We love the Federal government, we hate the Federal government, we love the Federal government:
At a public hearing earlier this year about the Dan River plans, several African-American residents argued against the proposal, saying it placed an unfair burden on the overall community. At the hearing, Assistant DEQ Secretary Tom Reeder pledged that the administration of Gov. Pat McCrory would complete an “environmental justice review of each Duke Energy coal ash landfill application” and seek approval from both EPA’s office of civil rights and the federal civil rights commission.
“The McCrory administration will go beyond federal and state requirements to protect minority communities from negative impacts when evaluating Duke Energy’s applications to store coal ash in a new landfill,” Reeder said at the time.
I will freely admit, I often try to ascribe nefarious motives when McCrory administration officials wax altruistic. Can't help it. When taken in context with other statements and behaviors, the odds they're genuinely concerned seem extremely low. Also, I just spent over an hour scouring DEQ's website searching for references to "environmental justice" and trying to track down the Division/department/agent(s) responsible for doing these reviews. Might as well have been looking for a four-leaf clover. I do welcome Federal oversight on this issue, because there are some serious questions about the appropriateness of this evaluation:
http://ift.tt/28SCB19
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