[CPEO-MEF] STATES FIGHT TO KEEP RIGHT TO FINE DEFENSE POLLUTERS

[mtptara@ime.net]

 AmeriScan: May 22, 2000    * * *
STATES FIGHT TO KEEP RIGHT TO FINE DEFENSE POLLUTERS  WASHINGTON, DC, May 
22, 2000 (ENS) - Allowing Congress to disapprove large environmental 
penalties levied by states against the Department of Defense is not a good 
idea in the view of the states' attorneys general. A proposal to limit 
Defense Department exposure to lawsuits appears in a 2001 Defense 
Department authorization bill. It would weaken the states' ability to 
assess environmental fines and penalties at military installations, the 
attorneys general say. In a letter to ranking members of the Senate 
Appropriations Committee on Friday, Christine Gregoire, attorney general of 
Washington and president of National Association of Attorneys General 
(NAAG), joined Colorado attorney general Ken Salazar, co-chair of NAAG's 
environment committee, and legislative and gubernatorial representatives in 
opposing the measure.  The letter was delivered to U.S. Senator Ted 
Stevens, an Alaska Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee and 
Senator Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, the committee's ranking 
minority member. Under the proposal, money appropriated in the bill could 
not be used to pay fines or penalties in excess of $1.5 million for 
violations of environmental laws at military installations unless such 
payments were first authorized by Congress. "Such a proposal has the effect 
of interjecting the legislature into what should be an independent system 
of law enforcement operated by the states and other environmental 
regulators," the letter from the state leaders said. "This approach to 
environmental regulation undermines the ability of states to use the threat 
of penalties as a means of forcing federal facilities to take 
responsibility for the environmental consequences of their operations." 	



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