[CPEO-MEF] ECOS Opposes Section 8149

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

One more association of state officials, the Environmental Council of
the States, has taken a position against Section 8149, the Defense
Appropriations Act rider requiring Congressional approval before the
Defense Department pays environmental fines. In a November 3 letter
signed by ECOS officers - environmental commissioners from South
Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Wyoming - ECOS writes:



We are writing on behalf of the Environmental Council of the States
(ECOS) to express our strong opposition to language in the FY 2000
Department of Defense Appropriations bill that exempts military
installations from fines and penalties arising from violations of
environmental law.

As the heads of state and territorial environmental protection agencies,
we can attest that wisely used fines and penalties are extremely
important in helping to assure compliance with environmental
requirements. We can also attest that states have been extremely
judicious in assessing fines and penalties against military
installations. Nonetheless, some military installations have been among
the worst violators of federal and state environmental requirements.

That is why state environmental commissioners, along with governors,
state legislators, attorneys general, and other officials of state
government, have insisted that the federal government live by exactly
the same standards and requirements that it imposes on all other
parties. Exempting military installations from one of the basic tools of
environmental enforcement is inappropriate. The federal government
recognized this in passing such laws as the Federal Facilities
Compliance Act of 1992 and the waiver of sovereign immunity contained in
other environmental statutes.

We urge you to rescind or repeal section 8149 of the FY 2000 Department
of Defense Appropriations bill, and to ensure that state and federal
laws apply to the Department of Defense in exactly the same way that
they apply to all other Americans....



-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org


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