[Durham INC] FW: N&O story on DENR budget cuts

[Pat Carstensen]

For the record, Dallas Woodhouse came to an INC meeting and managed to convince me that anything he was for was worth opposing.

Please send letters to the editor on this.

Regards, pat


Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:14:14 -0400
From: molly.diggins at sierraclub.org
Subject: N&O story on DENR budget cuts
To: NC-LEADERS at LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG

>From today's Raleigh N&O.  DENR's budget will likely be voted out of committee in the House this week.Dallas Woodhouse from the right wing Americans for Prosperity, summarizes what's going on:


"Dallas
 Woodhouse, state director for Americans for Prosperity, had hoped 
budget writers would go further and put the environmental agency under 
the state Department of Commerce....Republicans
 have to make cuts, Woodhouse said, and would rather find the savings in
 the environmental agency than in public schools..."They probably 
see DENR as the enemy," Woodhouse said. "Their people and the people 
they deal with run into constant problems with them."Molly


DENR weighs effect of cuts



 
 




    
    
        BY LYNN BONNER - Staff writer
    
    


 
Published in: 

 
        State

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        The state environmental agency is trying to figure whether House
 Republicans' proposal to cut hundreds of environmental jobs will impair
 its ability to protect air and water.The budget that a 
subcommittee is considering would close the environmental permitting 
office that serves the Charlotte area - one of seven Department of 
Environment and Natural Resources regional offices - and cut staff in 
three others.The forestry division would move to the state 
Department of Agriculture, and the state's primary land conservation 
fund, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, would get significantly 
less money and be largely prohibited from purchasing property.    
        
    Rep. Roger West, one of the co-chairmen of the budget-writing 
committee for the agency, said the plan would eliminate redundancies in a
 tight budget year.But deep cuts have the agency scrambling to 
figure out whether it could do its job if it loses more than 400 
positions and 15 percent of its budget."That's part of our 
concern - will we be able to carry out our regulatory authority 
delegated by the EPA?" said Manly Wilder, Department of Environment and 
Natural Resources chief deputy secretary.Environmental groups said the cuts would be disastrous for the environment."This
 is a terrible budget for clean water, the protection of the air we 
breathe, and the protection of our natural areas," said Elizabeth Ouzts,
 state director of Environment North Carolina. "Polluters will get off 
the hook."The proposed cuts come as Republicans in the 
legislature are reviewing regulations that may result in proposals to 
roll back environmental rules deemed impediments to business growth.Dallas
 Woodhouse, state director for Americans for Prosperity, had hoped 
budget writers would go further and put the environmental agency under 
the state Department of Commerce.But as it is, "they are 
proposing significant and important reforms that will create jobs and 
get the engines of commerce moving," Woodhouse said.The state cuts and regulatory reviews mirror activities in other states and in Washington.Republicans
 have to make cuts, Woodhouse said, and would rather find the savings in
 the environmental agency than in public schools."They probably 
see DENR as the enemy," Woodhouse said. "Their people and the people 
they deal with run into constant problems with them."The budget 
subcommittee proposed closing the Mooresville office on the belief that 
it issues the fewest permits. Actually, Mooresville was third from the 
top in permitting activity last year, according to DENR, behind only the
 Wilmington and Washington offices.Sam Pearsall, a scientist with
 the Environmental Defense Fund, said the smaller regional offices will 
lead to declines in service, as permit seekers travel farther and wait 
longer to get their plans reviewed."Increasingly, the people in 
Raleigh will be under pressure to approve permits faster and with less 
review," he said. "Many will probably fall through the cracks."West,
 a Republican from Cherokee, is well known to the environmental agency. 
He has had prominent run-ins with regulators, and in 2003, filed a bill 
that would have cut the jobs of two wetland enforcement staffers. Later 
he targeted the Raleigh regional office's air quality supervisor for 
elimination over a fine the Division of Air Quality issued against a 
friend.West said he was probably picked to help write the 
environmental agency's budget because he has been a member of the 
committee for years."I'm doing my job," he said.    
    


    lynn.bonner at newsobserver.com or 919-829-4821
-- 
Molly Diggins
State Director
NC Sierra Club
(p) 919.833.8467
(e) molly.diggins at sierraclub.org



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