Friday, 09 Mar 2001

I Love Parris in the Springtime

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) today created the country's first statewide commission to ensure that poor and minority communities don't bear the brunt of environmental pollution. Glendening said, "There are communities that tend to be politically less powerful because the family members are too busy struggling for survival. And as a result, they get dumped on." The 15-member Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities will include representatives from businesses, environmental groups, and relevant communities, as well as state environmental, health, and planning officials. It will make annual recommendations to the governor, but it will have no regulatory power.

J. Griles Bandit

The Bush administration announced yesterday that the president will nominate coal and energy industry lobbyist J. Steven Griles to serve as second-in-command at the Interior Department. Griles first got to know Interior Secretary Gale Norton when both worked at the Interior Department during the Reagan era; back then, Griles helped oversee mining and water issues. Most recently, he has been found lobbying for such clients as the National Mining Association, Occidental Petroleum, and the Edison Electric Institute. Enviros had been hoping that John Turner, who headed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during Bush the Elder's administration and now leads the Conservation Fund, would get the nod for deputy Interior secretary.

U. Be Illin'

The U.S. EPA has a new target for its investigations -- universities and colleges that aren't complying with environmental laws. "Our inspectors have not been on one campus where they have not found serious problems," says Rene Henry in the EPA's Philadelphia office. For example, Boston University was fined $750,000 in 1997 after a tank leaked 1,000 gallons of oil into the Charles River. Last December, the University of Hawaii was hit with the largest penalty ever issued by the EPA to a university: $1.7 million for hazardous waste violations. EPA spokesperson Mark Merchant said the agency started focusing on schools because pollution from industrial sources has been greatly reduced.