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The House Environment Committee has voted 9-5 against introducing proposed legislation from Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, attempting to ban the EPA from the state of Idaho by repealing 10 state laws that recognize the federal agency's role in environmental regulation in the state. “Don't get me wrong, I don't like EPA,” said Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa. Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, echoed Vander Woude. “I hope it's not mistaken that I support the EPA, and that's why I made the motion. Mr. Chairman, nothing could be farther from the truth,” Gibbs said. “I just don't think this bill is the way to put pressure on the EPA.” He noted that Harwood himself told the panel the bill was flawed.
Harwood defended his proposal, saying he wanted to get it printed and introduced, to start a conversation among states. “This is the right piece of legislation because this has to do with environmental quality, and what we're doing is removing 10 pieces of legislation that we've given permission for the EPA to be here and it's in this chunk of deal,” he said. “That's the main thing for this piece of legislation.”
Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, said he didn't appreciate lecturing suggesting he didn't support or understand the U.S. Constitution or the 10th Amendment. With Harwood's bill, he said, “All we are doing is yelling in the wind.” Rep. Dell Raybould, R-Rexburg, the committee's chairman, said the measure's fiscal note was inaccurate because it said there would be no impact to the state general fund. “I believe there is, simply because you take that federal funding away from the DEQ's budget, you've got a tremendous hole in the DEQ's budget that's got to be made up somewhere,” he said.
In the 9-5 vote against introducing the bill, the four other committee members who joined Harwood in supporting it were Reps. Steve Hartgen, R-Twin Falls; Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home; Robert Schaefer, R-Nampa; and Jeff Thompson, R-Bonneville.
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NoLeadHere on February 13 at 7:53 p.m.
The EPA could certainly hand over the trust funds collected for the Superfund to IDEQ. It’s hundreds of millions and wouldn’t need it anymore.
Perhaps the IDEQ would like to visit the National Academy of Sciences document on the Superfund site, and decide if they need to change the plan. But then, the gov’t likes to give itself work to justify its existence.
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/accomp/coeur/pdfs/ch9.pdf