Raymond Proffitt Foundation
Pollution Update: 21 March 1997
Joe Turner, editor
DEP and EQB Raise Utility Rates for all Pennsylvanians
Coal companies reaped a big reward from the Ridge Administration and their hatchet men on Tuesday. The Environmental Quality Board (EQB), a state panel charged with approving regulations to protect the environment failed to live up to its name. At issue was a proposal from our good friends at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and their favorite project, the "Regulatory Basics Initiative," better known around here as the "Roll Back Initiative."
Coal companies in southwestern Pennsylvania use a method of underground mining called "longwall" mining, which allows the coal mining company to leave less supports underground. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, a mining engineer, or even a member of the Environmental Quality Board to figure out what will happen if you don’t support the roof of an underground mine—it caves in, causing subsidence on the surface. Longwall mining is designed to have the mine behind the active mine face cave in. The subsidence on the surface might be incidental—but it is entirely predictable.
Just as where Mary went, the lamb was sure to go, where longwall mining went, the land was sure to go—straight down! Water companies and gas companies, and private citizens are all feeling the effects of the subsidence. This is not theory, folks. It is happening now. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that one company already had to relocate a 30 inch water main serving 40,000 people. Houses are being damaged and streams are disappearing as the landscape is changed.
Enter the DEP. They had a regulation that would make the coal companies pay for the damage they cause. Sounds like the deal the rest of us live with. I don’t know about you, but I consider myself responsible for my actions. Not the coal companies, though. It would cost them too much money. They want the victims to be responsible. Coal companies shouldn’t have to play by the rules the rest of us play by. Don’t think that you have to live in southwestern PA to be affected. These utilities have ratepayers all over the state, and they have said their customers are going to pay as a result of this ruling.
DEP, as part of the Roll Back Initiative, has decided to "streamline" our regulations. They say it won’t result in a roll back of protection. Well, on Tuesday they floated their package of mining regulation "reforms" past the EQB, which is made up mostly of Ridge appointees. Guess what was in there. A removal of the regulation that would make coal companies pay for the damage they caused. DEP said it was inconsistent with a recent law. The EQB, which usually shows the backbone of a jellyfish, rubber-stamped the proposal (some members were against the proposal). It wasn’t like the EQB didn’t know what they were doing. Utilities and citizens of the area have been crying "foul" for some time now.
Recently, PU has been sparring with DEP’s Deputy Secretary for Propaganda and Enlightenment, David Hess. PU has been saying that 1) DEP’s public participation provisions are a sham because DEP doesn’t pay any attention to public comment, and 2) the Roll Back Initiative is a thinly disguised giveaway for polluters. David Hess has countered with 1) they are not a sham because they do listen, and 2) PU and its editor have nothing positive to say about anyone or anything.
Well, I have something positive to say in this case. DEP was very honest. They and the EQB "expedited" this regulation. Expedited means that public comments are not going to be considered; the regulation was rammed through. Why bother to solicit public comment when it is just going to be ignored, especially when it comes to one of the most sacred cows of DEP and the Ridge Administration, the coal companies? Not only does that give DEP a new reputation for honesty, it saves me the trouble of saying later on that the public comments were ignored, and saves Hess his knee-jerk replies replete with buzzwords and phrases like "stakeholders," "roundtables," "partnerships," "ISO 14000" and "new ways of doing business."
The regulation goes on to that other bastion of higher thinking in Harrisburg, the General Assembly, the group that voted for the law that conflicts with the regulation. What will the General Assembly do? Anyone’s guess. Given that coal companies donate plenty of cash to politicians’ campaigns, and therefore have influence out of all proportion to their real importance, I’m not optimistic. This regulatory rollback victimizes citizens, ignores the public interest, and transfers wealth from Pennsylvanians (utility customers) to private mining firms. Contact your legislator and express your outrage. Maybe they will listen to public comment more carefully than DEP does.
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